S9EX: Nekeisha Burchell — Politics, Rumors & Owning Your Story

In this episode of the Kareem Bwoyatingz Podcast, Kareem sits down with Nekeisha Burchell, Member of Parliament for St. James Southern.

From her upbringing in Garlands to her rise in politics, Nekeisha shares her journey, challenges, and the realities of navigating public life.

The conversation also touches on public perception, rumors, and the scrutiny that often comes with visibility, especially for women in leadership.

This episode is about growth, resilience, and owning your narrative.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:05

Voy Teams Podcast is brought to you by GWF Mobox firm Mark Superstore and Block by Red. That's done. Alright, welcome back to Voyatings Podcast. I don't know what it is, Kareem Boyetings, and this is where we cut through the PR, the politics, and the perception. Today's guest is a woman who refuses to be boxed, branded, or silenced. She calls herself the Garland's Girl. Not because it sounds good on a poster, but because Garland's St. James made her from dry pipes and broken roads to parliament floors and international classrooms. She has lived the contrast Jamaica talks about every single day. She's academically elite, Huey, and the London School of Economics. Also culturally fluent. Also blending politics with dancehall, dub plates, and real street language. She shook up the system in 2025 by unseating a political heavyweight and becoming the first woman MP for St. James Southern. Who she is? Well, it's Nikisha Burchell. Okay, but with you know visibility, it also comes with some speculation. With power comes with rumors. With a woman in politics comes judgment. And tonight we're not running from the whispers, we're putting them on the table. No spin, no filters, just truth, growth, and accountability. Welcome to the show, Nikisha. How are you?

SPEAKER_04 1:27

I'm good. What an introduction. Thanks for watching. I mean, come on, man. Come on.

SPEAKER_06 1:32

You've been doing some amazingly great things. Matter of fact, like I've gone through mountains just to get you on the show. Like we needed you on the show.

SPEAKER_04 1:42

What? You should have just called me.

SPEAKER_06 1:44

I mean, you're a busy woman.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Oh.

SPEAKER_06 1:47

And a matter of fact, when I wanted to do it first, it was in um uh Hurricane Melissa.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:53

And then we said, you know, the timing wrong. Some of them just say, you know, a new year, so let's just start our fresh. How have you been? It's been a long year for you, 2025.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

I I think 2026 feels like it's been 12 months already. 2025 started, really rough. I was in campaign mode, ended it with a hurricane. And 2026 has not eased up at all. My days are still long, go on for 24 hours, and my weeks, they're now you know longer than ever. So it's been rough for me, but so grateful. So grateful to have the opportunity to represent my home, my yard, my people, my family. I feel that I was prepared for such a time as this, and I hope I don't let them down.

SPEAKER_06 2:41

I'm sure you're going to be doing an amazing job. Um, you know, just based on what we've seen in the media from you. Your dip on the ground, boots on the ground, as we would say. Heels on the ground. Well, heels on the ground. Um, and I'm just wishing you, you know, a prosperous year for this you know 2026. So let's just go back to your formative years. Garland's St. James. I don't think I've ever heard of Garland's before until last year.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

But you hear about it now?

SPEAKER_06 3:09

Hear about it now. So let's tell us about young Nikisha. What was she like?

SPEAKER_04 3:12

So that's the idea. So I'm the daughter of a pastor.

SPEAKER_06 3:15

A lie.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

Tappy. You know, see it. You don't see my halo? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:19

Yeah, she did. Of course, right there.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

I'm the daughter of a pastor. My mother is a homemaker, so she she grew us up in the fear of God, seven children between them, and they would have continued if she hadn't had her third C-section with my last brother. And so we grew up in a very tight-knit family and a community that was even closer. So the community grew us from the shopkeepers to the neighbors to the teachers. So you couldn't get in a trouble because by the time you reach home, you'd get your second course of beat and haven't gotten the first one from the neighbor who saw you doing anything badly. But I think my parents were blessed. They got seven kids who really didn't give them too much trouble. And you know what they say about past us kids, we're good. We're angels. Yeah. So they're lucked out, you know, they got the angels. Um, I went to Garland's Primary School, which is the community primary school, which has been affected significantly by Hurricane Melissa. We're trying to get it re-roofed. And there I was one of the last batches, I believe, to pass my common entrance. Went off to really yes, my old. I thought you were a G set girl. No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. And um, I went on to Montel Verna High School, which was my dream at the time. Still is for most girls in the community. And I went after high school, I wasn't sure what I was gonna do. So I got a job at the courthouse as a as a court administrator, an assistant to a court administrator, rather, and there I decided I'm gonna go to law school because that's what everybody thought I was gonna do. Go to law school. But of course I couldn't afford it because I'm a poor. Oh, so I had to work first. Um, I applied for law school, but I was influenced by I think it was Jade Fulford. She was like a Miss Jamaica or Miss Universe at the time. I thought she was just beautiful, and she had international relations on her on her course of study. And I said, What does that do? They're like, You can become an ambassador. I'm like, Yeah, sign me up for that. Sign me up for love, of course. Yes. I went off and I did international relations. Obviously, I couldn't become an ambassador, um, but I did a double major with political science and international relations at UA. And I felt I couldn't manage it, you know. But I still went to my first love, which was communication, communication, communication, and that's when my first job at Jampro was as a communications consultant. And there, so happened I ran into the then general secretary of the PNP, Peter Bunting, and he drafted me to work with him. And I don't know, politics caught.

SPEAKER_06 6:03

Politics just phoned you. Alright, so it's time to make me want the keys, and we're here with Jason. Jason is gonna have 60 seconds to tell me and my viewers this vehicle here and to see if anybody out there would like the keys to this. Alright, so I'm gonna start the timer, run it now and go.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Awesome. The 2027 P Series off-road is a contractor in a suit. It is a rough and simple vehicle, go anywhere, do anything, metal bumpers, off-road spectrals, and a snorkel that allows this vehicle to wade in 700 millimeters of water. But at the same time, we have a leather interior, heated and cooled seats, wireless apple card plate. So we're giving you everything, we're giving you something that can go anywhere and still be comfortable while doing it.

SPEAKER_06 6:52

Next week is another episode of Make Me Want the Kids. Because I was gonna ask if it is that you have always wanted to do politics, but okay, so whilst you were at UI, yeah, what was your career goal then?

SPEAKER_04 7:04

At UI, I I was still there thinking I'm gonna be an ambassador. Oh no, man, I knew I was gonna be an ambassador. I did international relations like Jade. So of course I was gonna be an ambassador. Yeah, man. I mean, it was afterwards, you know. I took a year off afterwards, and I was traveling, I was in New York, I was thinking of enrolling in school there and stuff, and I got called for the job here in Jamaica, so I came back to Jamaica and did that job, and communications found me again. That's my true passion. Yeah, communications, and that's my job now, actually. I'm not a politician by career, I'm a political communication strategist, and I offer communication support mostly to political parties across the region. So I've worked in a number of successful campaigns in the region, um, some not so successful, but I've worked in countries like um Grenada, um Bahamas, Dominica, Antigua, St. Kitts. Um you know, I've worked where the last one was in February of this of last year, where we helped to elect the first female premier of Anguilla. So I I I feel like I've had that kind of calling from early, but politics was sort of like a convenient arrangement because it helped me to give back to those who helped to grow me.

SPEAKER_06 8:25

You know, as you were just speaking, I just found out so much about you in just a you know short span of time. Yeah. Why don't you do like more interviews? Like I feel like you came on a lot of our radars last year for mainstream, right? So obviously you've been putting in the work, like I don't just know, but I feel like a lot of us, myself included, like we got to to see glimpses of you and we see a part of news and we'll see a rally for your community and things like that. And I was like, wait, so where did she come from? You know, so is that something that you well yeah, Garland for sure. But is that something that you made a conscious decision to say I want to let my work speak for myself?

SPEAKER_04 9:08

I'm just not no, I was always a behind the scenes kind of person. So I mean, you can't all be kings, some people have to be king makers, right? True. And so I've spent a lot of my career, you know, it's been a near 16 years career in political communication. I've spent that building political careers, building political identities and characters that you see across the Caribbean. But I think you can be better at your work or the best at your work if you're in the background and you help to propel those who need your work, you know. Sometimes I hate when those who are supposed to be building the people are in the front. You know, that's not the job, that's not a brief. I'm an accidental politician. I've worked in the field, but my intention was always to be in the background and to work there. But my constituency needed me, and they started calling me, and they're like, What are you doing? We need you, you know, that kind of thing. The party also said, We need you to think about this. And this wasn't the first time they'd asked me. They had asked me um as far back as 2020 election, and I was like, No, I'm I don't think I'm ready for it. I'll still continue to serve in the background. But there comes a point when you have to answer a call, or a call is answered for you, and in this case, it was answered for me.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

So just because a particular spouse's name is not on the title, that alone is not indicative of whether or not they're entitled to a share. The court is gonna look at what their contribution was and bear in mind, contribution is not just financial. But before the court even gets to whether or not there was a contribution, the court is going to consider whether or not this particular property qualifies as the family home. The good thing is the divorce can proceed without determining this particular issue. So it's important that you get the support of an attorney at law to determine what your options are and what you can potentially negotiate on when it comes on to the division of matrimonial property.

SPEAKER_06 11:48

So when they asked you in 2020, you said, no, I'm anybody ready. I don't think it's time. So why did you know that this time around was the time for you to, you know, step up to the plate and to really answer that call from your community?

SPEAKER_04 12:03

Yeah, I'm also a deputy general secretary of the PNP, and I can't be out there, you know, telling people this is the right position. And they're like, oh, so why not? Why aren't you doing it? You know, if you believe in it, why don't you do it? You know, so I'm in a sense fulfilling what my heart has been saying, not to run in politics, but to show people that this matters. It's important to make a choice that you feel best represent you and the people you're from. But it also says that young girls like Nikisha's in the Garlands, in Mokko, in Mafuta, in Katadoopa, in Richmond Hill, in places you've never heard of, in Niagara, in Arcadia, they also need to believe and not just hear, they need to see examples of what is possible. When I was growing up, the ambition, the apex of our ambition was to be a teacher, and that's a brilliant career. But um, in our communities, we're higglers, we're market vendors, we're farmers, proud choices, but that was it. Our pool was this shallow, all important, but shallow. I'm trying to widen that neck for them. So now when I go in the community and they call me Nikisha, the older people don't like that. Call her Miss Burchill. I'm like, no, you're making me feel old. But they say Nikisha Burchill, they love to call both names together. And when the kids say that, I know that I am creating for them the reality that something greater is possible if you believe.

SPEAKER_06 13:43

You spoke about coming from humble beginnings, a humble background. Um, what did that teach you as it relates to how what did you learn or carry the title the Nikisha today, the MP?

SPEAKER_04 13:58

I think you say humble, but the first word that jumps out at me is humility. It taught me that you can be the king of Astoria, but you still have to have the humility of the farmer from Garlands because we achieve a lot by virtue of our sweat. We are farmers and we're house makers. But when we dress up, we dress the best. When we come out, we clock it, you know. So we have learned how to be humble. We call it we call it poor and bossy. People don't like it, but we're proud of what we've achieved. So that kind of humility and pride are the two things I think I've taken from my upbringing to be humble, but to be proud.

SPEAKER_06 14:42

Yeah. Um, so when your profile rose and you're no longer in the shadows and you're no longer building other people and building other people's brands and things like that, um, online chatters started to buzz, right? And then we see the conversation about body makeover thing, right? Why do you think society obsesses so much about women's bodies, especially powerful women?

SPEAKER_04 15:10

Yeah, I don't get it. Because why aren't they obsessing about your body? Like, I want to talk about your body. Why mine? Right? Right, Karim, where we can't say women get them abs, they're from because we sexualize women a lot. We sexualize women. And let me tell you, and I don't want to be a hypocrite about this, because I intentionally dress the way I dress because my femininity matters to me.

SPEAKER_06 15:36

As it should.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

And so I'm not recoiling from anything that makes me feel that I should not embrace my womanhood. So I've heard everything from my cheeks are fake, my lips are fake, my yeah, my lashes are fake. Um I've heard everything to every other body part. My bosom.

SPEAKER_06 15:58

Yes, my buttocks.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

Buttocks, that's a word, right? Um, I had these boobs that were giving me headache, literally. Just pain from my shoulder up into my neck, into my head, and people were saying they were fake, and I was like, take them.

SPEAKER_06 16:13

If they're fake, come for them.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Come take them. I don't want them, you know. And these lips that I hated growing up because they were so big, and you know, the other kids in school would say, You lip them big, you know, and people are now saying that they're fake, you know, and my cheeks that I inherited from my father, like, and if you know my aunts, and I'll bring some of them for you someday, they have the figure that I envy.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

What's it?

SPEAKER_04 16:36

So I'm not gonna let anybody define me as just a figure. Yeah, go ahead, do what you want to do. Because I treat criticism as data. Okay, and what I learn from data is I learn to take the good from it and build on it, and the bad, garbage in, garbage out. So I'm not bothered.

SPEAKER_06 16:56

So to answer the rumor or the question, you've never done any cosmetic surgery.

SPEAKER_04 17:01

Jesus, what is me can't afford cosmetic surgery. And let me ask you this when the men come up here, you ask them if they're doing cosmetics, and I'm not sure. And I mean I look on me.

SPEAKER_06 17:12

Uh uh yes, you're a beautiful woman, of course. And you look very good. And I've just you know told you that before the episode that you look very nice.

SPEAKER_04 17:20

I think a woman is so much more than just her body.

SPEAKER_06 17:22

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

I think that it's in 2026 we have to allow women to choose how they want to look. If we want to wear extension, let us wear extension. It's not offending you. We have one life. All of us were blessed with one life. And if I'm gonna allow someone to determine how I live this one life, I would not be fulfilling what God gave me, you know, the talent, what he said. I give you one talent or ten, I'm gonna take care of my one talent. And if it means I'm gonna get some massages each week, if it means that I'm gonna get a facial here or there, if these microneedlings that I see going on now, that everybody's getting baby Korean skin from. Glass skin. Glass skin, like I mean, I think that if God give me one talent and I put it under a bushel, I I'm not deserving of it.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Right.

SPEAKER_04 18:09

I need to take care of what God has given me and I will do it safely, and I will do it with my money.

SPEAKER_06 18:16

Okay. Got it. Clock it. Oh let me ask you though. Do you think that your image also heightens um you know people actually being interested first? Because the first thing we see is your image on social media, and then we'll start doing research, and then we'll say, but she's a smart woman, like she makes sense and she loves her community and she fight hard for them. So do you think that also aids in, you know, people actually will seeing you first and then finding out that it actually makes sense in their life?

SPEAKER_04 18:48

It matters, image matters. Um, when I go into the bank, for example, and I see 10 tellers on the line, I want to go to the one who is well equipped, to the one who puts some time in how they present themselves to the world. So image matters, appearance matters. I don't say that I spend all my hours preening and ensuring that every hair, every strand is in place. Most times I'm not put together. But image matters. And when you're inviting, you invite others to look. When they look, you have an opportunity to talk to them. And I think I've benefited from a lot of the criticism because it has drawn a lot of attention my way, and I'm using it for what? For my people.

SPEAKER_06 19:32

As you should. You made mention of why we don't do the same thing to men. Do you feel like particularly in politics, uh, women are being punished for being attractive in ways men never are?

SPEAKER_04 19:47

Oh, absolutely. Um, and you know what hurts sometimes is that most times it's other women who who who poke fun at you and try to diminish you, um, as if they could. Uh but no, men are definitely not held to the same standard as women in this industry. I mean, politics is a very male-dominated sport. So a woman coming in yet alone, a woman who is unconventional, not someone who's gonna come on and interview in a short. Like, what are you doing in a shorts? You know, a woman who loves her lubes, a woman who loves her her, you know, she likes her things like what are you doing here? You can't do both, and you can you can't take care of yourself how you want to take care of yourself and still deliver for your people. I'm showing them that I can wear my timberlands, I can wear my water boot, I can wear my heels, and I still deliver. Because at the end of the day, it really is about impact and performance and what you produce at the end of the day. And I think so far I've been checking most of those while wearing heels.

SPEAKER_06 20:55

You have been. Yeah. Um another rumor, because again, we're gonna be able to do it. She says there's so much rumor about me. But I place it all up on the table today now. You understand? Because I don't know when I'm gonna interview next. All right. Nikisha. You're a very busy woman.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Random.

SPEAKER_06 21:10

Um rumors about your personal relationships have circulated online. Jeez. Um, and particularly when I was doing research for this episode, um, just to kind of get to know you better, I saw a lot of things. And I won't call anybody's name, but it ranged from politician to entertainer.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

Jesus.

SPEAKER_06 21:32

Without calling any names, have you dated any politicians before?

SPEAKER_04 21:35

I don't know if people go by labels. Um, I've dated men. I've dated men, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_06 21:46

In the career field of politics?

SPEAKER_04 21:48

I've dated men in a lot of career fields, and I feel good that I've been able to attract the kind of men I've been able to get my way. I've never had an interviewer though. A podcast boss.

SPEAKER_06 22:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

You know, I don't know. Have they said anything about that?

SPEAKER_06 22:04

Not yet.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

Kareem be careful of interviewing them because every man I'm associated with them semi doid. So by the time we leave here, you're going to have problems with a girl.

SPEAKER_06 22:15

Okay. Yeah. What I'm thinking about the way. I'm just putting that out there. Me too. Oh, okay. Love that. Can we interview now? My job here is done. How do you decide though, like what you give your energy to? Because as a public figure, again, this is a conversation, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:32

So I can tell you, I have been in public relationships before, but maybe for the past eight years, I've decided that's never gonna happen again. So I allow people to run with whatever they want to run with. People have said a lot of things and they will continue to say things, and but boy, is things somebody really mind if you are say things. I'm gonna go clear it, not looking at anything when I say I saw it go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just add 10 pan it and just carry it and go cash it. That does just me.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:58

But like what as a politician, as somebody representing her community, like how do you know, okay, I should address this or I should just leave this alone and make it just die down?

SPEAKER_04 23:10

A lot of it goes by instinct for me. So if instinctively I feel this matters, not to John public or people I don't know, if this matters to my mother, if this matters to those I respect, if it matters to those I care about, I feel I have a duty to respond. It's not always publicly, but I feel I must address it with those who I care about. And that list of people I care about has widened significantly to not just be in my immediate family, to my entire constituency. So I do have a duty to respond to those things that affect them.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

I find different ways to do so, sometimes directly, sometimes via social media, sometimes just a one-on-one chat with them because communication is important in keeping that kind of relationship with them. So I use my instincts and I use my training. I'm a communications.

SPEAKER_06 24:01

You're training, of course, but I'll ask you. Yes, you're good at it. You're good.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Stop. Um, but I did not spend those that money to go to London School of Economics to do strategic communications to just answer everything when a mic gets in front of me.

SPEAKER_06 24:16

Yeah. Do you think though being a public figure um affects your ability to date freely without people being in a business?

SPEAKER_04 24:25

Absolutely. But dating is so hard though.

SPEAKER_06 24:28

I will power up that. Dating is hard.

SPEAKER_04 24:30

I I I mean, at my big old age, I've never been in what people would consider a very conventional relationship. I've never brought home a partner to my parents. I've never lived with a partner, you know. I've really and truly just lived. And when I look back and I assess, um assess what I've done in my personal life over the years, I mean, I really do not live in. No. I mean, I've been so focused on education, I've been so focused on career, I've been so focused on building others' brand that Nikisha really and truly just spends the little time she has left over to sleep and eat and shop. I can't shop so much anymore because my money goes to the constituency. But you know, that's what I've been doing with the little time that I have left. Dating is difficult. Am I gonna go on Tinder?

SPEAKER_06 25:22

No, sir.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

Am I gonna put my profile on a dating app and say they're gonna say they're gonna scandal me? Of course. Where am I gonna find a partner? Am I gonna go to a bar and try to in parliament? So who I should date in parliament?

SPEAKER_06 25:37

I'll tell you off government. You have some options. I mean, I may have one or two. I may see one or two. But here's the thing, you're so right. And you know, dating, I think a lot of especially like our age group, right? I feel like um societal norms told us that to be successful, especially for women, and what it looks like, right? And it goes like this.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:02

You have to be a mother and a wife, and then your career comes after that, you know. So mother and wife first, and then your career, and then you have to be a Christian. And I'm just like, so I'm happy to see women doing life in their own way.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:18

Like, you know, say, okay, if men are married, that means say I'm unsuccessful, not negotial.

SPEAKER_04 26:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:23

You understand? Yeah. So take your time.

SPEAKER_04 26:25

Yeah. I never grew up with this great ambition to be married and to have children. Those were not on my to-do list.

SPEAKER_06 26:32

Oh, same.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

If they happen, they happen. But I know how they happen, so I do things to not let them happen when I don't want them to happen. Um, so for me, I knew I knew from very young that I wanted to make my parents proud. And I wanted to make my community proud, I'm a church proud, I'm a God proud, you know? So those were always things that mattered to me. Children and marriage and those were always convenient if they conveniently occur. They just haven't occurred for me.

SPEAKER_06 27:02

As yet, as yet.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

As yet, he says.

SPEAKER_06 27:04

What's the biggest lie you've ever heard about yourself, privately or publicly?

SPEAKER_04 27:09

I mean, I think it could be those that you you said before, you know. Um the biggest lie. I think it's just a body of lies. I've heard that I'm dating the prime minister. Oh! God forbid! God forbid.

SPEAKER_03 27:25

God forbid Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

I've heard, I I mean, I think it's really more about my private life. Those are the biggest lies. And I think because I've kept it so private, people are just guessing at the time. People just going in and creating things, and when they talk, you would think I told them about my secrets last night.

SPEAKER_06 27:46

Oh, yes. Oh. Oh, yes. So no, I know that. Like when people don't know, like they they're so believable with the lies that even you are reading sometimes and you have to say that. I wonder for true. I wonder if you see. I'm an answer for two. I'm gonna remember.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

You know, true, true.

SPEAKER_06 28:02

Yeah. Okay, um, in the political season, you uh well apparently blurred lines by you know using dub plates on popcorn and others, obviously. Um, were you criticized for that publicly or behind closed doors? Oh, of course. Why though? Why? Because from the start of time, people are used dub plates and entertainers.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

Yeah, but Nikisha was using it. Nikisha, who is, you know, all the things they describe me as, you know, and if I get a dub plate from someone, it must not be currency, it must not be money being exchanged like every other politician. I'm exchanging something else for it. Uh, but as I said, criticism is data, and data helps to build algorithms, and data helps to bring um build impressions. So I took them as they came.

SPEAKER_06 28:49

Yeah. Do you think that politicians um or traditional politics rather fears dance all because it speaks directly to the people? I have a whole thing on this, by the way, but you can go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 29:04

So, is this where we talk about which one is the mirror? If it's just a reflection of society or is it directing society? I don't know. The debate is out there. What I advocate for is responsible information sharing, whether it is music, whether it is what the politicians say on the stage, whether it is what we say in parliament. So I'm for responsible information, responsible data. So, yes, society has a responsibility to self-assess and those persons in society to decide will this help or will this you know make us worse? Sometimes for me, this song sounds like it's gonna be too bad for society, but to somebody else, it is the greatest piece of motivation. So, what do we do? What we have control over. So I have control over my children. I can tell them this is somebody you don't listen to. Yeah, or this is not the kind of content that is for you right now. You shelf that and learn how to sift because I can't go there and uh walk around and you know, I don't have this thing that they use in what they call it now. We can zap the memory. Um, what a movie they name again.

SPEAKER_06 30:15

Men in black men in black.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

So I don't want men in black to walk around and you know, bleep out society for children. So I have to reinbuild them so that they have the skills to decide what's best for them out there.

SPEAKER_06 30:28

2025 again was a huge year for you. I remember being at nationwide during the elections, all hands on deck, and when we saw that you unseated Mr. Davis, which was historic. You know what? Let us backtrack to what happened?

SPEAKER_04 30:51

I want to know what happened at nationwide.

SPEAKER_06 30:53

Oh no, no, no. We were just like, she did it.

SPEAKER_04 30:57

Alright, go on then.

SPEAKER_06 30:58

You know, like I, you know, yeah, so so um months leading up to the actual night of the elections. Obviously, you you're putting the work, but were there any moments or moments that you thought to yourself, you know, it's gonna feel like this at all?

SPEAKER_04 31:22

No. No. I actually thought I would have come out of it with a wider margin, just based, I mean, it's not ego, just based on the work we put in and based on the reception we got on the ground. The campaign was short, it wasn't your traditional years and years of working in the field. So we had a short space of time to really build momentum, get my candidacy out there, and to also tell the people why me. And we did that as a sprint, but we didn't have the traditional time that you would need to get out and enumerate people. So the enumeration is the time you have different phases over the years that you can get people on the voters' list or encourage people who you think will support you to get on the voters' list. So I came in just using what existed, you know, and not much political work had gone into my political organization in the constituency for quite some time. So I was using a list that was already um small versus an opponent who had been growing and growing and growing their list, you know. So my duty was to re-energize and re-invigorate the PNP base, um, get those who had stayed away from the polls to come back and to try to take some of those that they had enumerated and convince them to come my way. So I felt we were getting that. We had a lot of them, a lot of supporters of the JLP who came over and supported us. I felt we had the base coming back. Um, so I wasn't so unsure that we would win. I thought we'd have won better, but election night, the disappointment for me and the heartbreak, it was so bittersweet because I wanted us to win overall, um, get government and go out there and do some of the work that I I know we could do.

SPEAKER_06 33:12

There's a thing that um for the past six years since I've entered into media, I have been, especially back then, more vocal about politics and just politicians in general. And I have a lot of politician friends.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 33:26

Um, but this is a question that I would also ask them, you know, about when you guys are young and just start and the fresh ideas, and we're like, you're for the people, and we can't wait for see you do it. And then you get in the system, you make the system consume you. Is that something that you wonder will happen um to you in the future?

unknown 33:53

No.

SPEAKER_06 33:53

Being consumed by the system and just being demotivated by not getting the support, etc. etc.

SPEAKER_04 33:59

No. Sitting here with you tonight, and I'm thinking about Gollum and the Ring. But um, sitting here, I'm not someone who intends, as we sit here, to be in politics for a long time. I've promised my constituents at least two good terms. Because, you know, I think we would use those two terms to really get where we want. Yeah, I'm a party never win, so I'm not able to do all the things I had hoped we'd have been able to do being an opposition MP. But so I don't think I'll be here long enough to be consumed by it. I'm coming in to give it my best effort. And when I feel my best effort is not good enough or I'm not able to deliver it, I'm going home because I know that there's a beach for me to lay down on somewhere. I know that maybe there are some children I need to have, maybe there's a husband waiting for me. I still have a few good years left in me and I want to do some things for me too. You know, so politics is not the end all for me. It is the means for me to get the kind of aid I want in the communities I grew up in. But the minute it starts to change me to the point where I don't recognize myself and my meet a stick that my parents don't rec recognize me, then it's over for me.

SPEAKER_06 35:18

What is your end goal in politics? What other than um you know being there for your constituents? But is there a title, is there something that you would love to achieve before all of that comes into play?

SPEAKER_04 35:35

Title, well, I mean, I I I have to think now because my end goal was water. I just I just want to know if water can't come a gala and a mock on town the river. Like what we do so, you know. I mean, so that was my end goal. If I can bring water, then I can retire, you know. So that that was my end goal. But in terms of title, I want when I leave this space to be recognized as someone who did it for the love. Yeah, the likes can come too. But who did it really for the love and was able to achieve it without losing her soul. Um, I don't know what title that is, but uh um heart of love is what I use a lot in my communication with constituents and even on social media. I'm running with my heart. I'm running with my heart, ran through the election with my heart, running through um my term in office with my heart. And I'm as long as I don't lose that, I think I would have counted it as success.

SPEAKER_06 36:40

You spoke about being the deputy general secretary and the director of communications for the People National Party. Um do you ever feel overworked or underestimated or not appreciated? Overworked for sure.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

Why do you have to put the last part in there? Overworked has been me. I mean, today, for example, I had two funerals. I had two community ironing, because we have this initiative where we're ironing school uniforms in communities that don't have electricity. I had one in Garlands, I had one in Niagara, I had a funeral in Niagara, I had another funeral down the road, and then I had to drive like mad to get into Kingston for this interview. Yes, overworked.

SPEAKER_03 37:29

Of course.

SPEAKER_04 37:30

Yes, overworked. Um, underappreciated, yes, underappreciated. Um, but who isn't? Life is tough. It is. But I put on my big girl panties and I move on.

SPEAKER_06 37:42

As you should, Queen. I love that. In Parliament, you also championed the creative economic and gender affairs. Um, explain both first and also tell us why these two specifically.

SPEAKER_04 37:56

Well, it's it's actually information and then culture and creative industries. Those are the two portfolios I hold. But they were actually given to me by the leader of the opposition, Mark Golding. So he saw something, I guess. He thought that I could represent the party's position on those two portfolios. Yes, information, I get that, because that is my training, communication, and and so on. But um, culture and creative industries is new to me and it's exciting. I am thinking about how we can package, truly package brand Jamaica, not just make it a buzzword. Like, why are we the reggae island, right? The home of reggae, the birthplace of reggae, and you don't hear reggae um up Old Hope Road and Bob Marley Avenue? Why is it Old Hope Road and not Bob Marley Avenue where the where the museum is? Why is the museum something that only tourists go to? Shouldn't we be having live concerts on the street, everywhere that you go? Should our shouldn't our hotels be having real Jamaican reggae performances uh at nights and not, you know, um singing um foreign songs to originally.

SPEAKER_06 39:08

Michael Jackson's something tired.

SPEAKER_04 39:13

You know, how do we say we have this potential in our culture and we're not spending the time to package it? Why are our artists with such immense talent not being given the support by government to get them visa, to go far in to make the money that they need to make and come back? Who is lobbying for them? I, as I said, in my practice as a communications consultant, I have always been in the background to build and to push people. I'm bringing that same kind of approach. You're not gonna see me upon every stage as your culture and creative industry um representative. I'm not gonna be there. It's not about me. It really is about how I can use my power, my voice, uh, my capacity to build the product that really, really, really represents what Jamaica is about. Sam Sharp from South St. James, from my constituency. But all we do is we celebrate them on Hero's Day and we talk about them for two minutes. Nothing else happened. Why isn't there a movie about Sam Sharp? The sexy man from over Katadoopa, from over Cryden, and how he was being oppressed and then him used to tee foot the look for him girlfriend down there. So why aren't we making our story sexy and attractive and like Superman and like them? We have a Sam Sharp movie that can play upon Netflix too. You know, what about Paul Bogle? What about Nanny? Did she really catch bullets in her butt? We need to really make that into an animation and make some money out of it. What about you, a podcaster? What about our people who are making money off Twitter? How do we protect their creative power? How do we ensure that they earn from it, not just today, but tomorrow? What kind of support are we giving them to ensure that they're not just one-day wonders and today they make a slang and everybody uses it but they get no money from it? That's my job as an information and culture creative industry spokesperson to ensure that brand Jamaica and every other brand that represents a sub-brand is properly marketed, properly protected, and the practitioners in it get their fair share. That's my job.

SPEAKER_06 41:12

What was the response at that time when you presented this?

SPEAKER_04 41:17

Um, it was my first time speaking in parliament, by the way.

SPEAKER_06 41:20

I watched it.

SPEAKER_04 41:21

Yeah. And I wasn't even prepared because we weren't told in parliament that today this is what's gonna happen, so you could go out and write something. So I really just spoke off the cuff, you know. And the response was good. I thought I bombed it. No, you're a great. Yeah, that's what I heard. And I'm honestly me? Like, seriously, and um, so it kind of encouraged me to turn a like, you know, son up, little girl. I mean, you can do this. Try a little more, and maybe it can work, you know, because as me say over and over, if your heart is in the right place and I come with this heart of love, it will shine through with whatever I do. So I'm gonna do it somewhere.

SPEAKER_06 42:02

And I can't wait to see it. Um, and just continue, you know, to to push this creative industry because so many of us we have some, you know, some bright ideas and you know how we want to be to be celebrated and supported, but you know, sometimes we just don't feel like we're being seen or heard. So, you know, continue doing it.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

Yeah, I mean, if those who have the microphone aren't using it to promote you, yeah, they're promoting themselves, then you're gonna have a problem.

SPEAKER_06 42:30

Actual, factual. Have you ever regretted um entering a public life because you loved it behind the scenes? Now that you're now in front of the camera, now that you've seen what this life has been, do you have any regrets?

SPEAKER_04 42:47

About entering?

SPEAKER_06 42:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

I think I operated before politics with this false sense of security that I could go anywhere, do anything. Um, I used to jump carnival um and I miss it. Um, but I can't do it again. You know, I can't go there to put on carnival costume and still look dead straight in my constituent's eyes. Um going to, I mean, I wear gym clothes a lot in the daytime. I can't go to the supermarket in gym clothes and feel like I'm not being a Margaret Thatcher here, you know what's going on? You know, you should be wearing a jacket suit to the supermarket, you know. Um, so in that sense, I do hate that I've lost my privacy, my safety in being private, you know, and having that. Um otherwise, I don't yet have any real regret. I know it's a thankless job, and I am seeing, you know, glimpses of that, but I knew that coming in. So no, I don't regret it just yet.

SPEAKER_06 43:53

When the cameras are off and the rumors are quiet, who is Nikisha really accountable? To um and what does that person look like? When in a day in other communities, when in uh in a parliament, when it's just you by yourself, who's that person?

SPEAKER_04 44:12

I'm accountable to me. I'm accountable to me, and guess what? I'm my harshest critic. I really go hard at myself. I really go back over my day. What did you do? Who did you miss today? Who did you not acknowledge with the respect that was required? I don't need someone to really measure me. I'm grateful, as I said, because criticism, when it's constructive, is helpful. But I'm my measuring stick. I have been given all the biblical training you want in life. I go to church Sunday, Sunday night, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night, we skip out Saturday and come back Sunday. I have all the biblical scriptures and principles to help to always bring me back if I'm going too far. I'm my harshest critic. And next is my parents.

SPEAKER_06 45:00

When you look back on that young girl living Mount Alvernia, hi, to go to UA. Um if you have anything to say to her that Nikisha Birchell in 2026 had MP, the woman in the parliament. What would you say?

SPEAKER_04 45:23

Oh my god, that's very emotional. I think I would say you'll be able to one day afford more than one pair of white uniforms at school. Um you will be able to help your parents pay their bills, you'll be able to help your younger siblings go through university, and one day you will be able to inspire all constituents of little Nikisha's and Nicholas's to go for their dreams.

SPEAKER_06 45:57

Yes, you I didn't know what to expect when um I was going to do this interview, but I'm so impressed. I am so impressed. You're a pure soul and energy, and I can feel it. And I was wishing you all the best, and don't make it consume you. Just you know, continue to fight for your community and fight for your people, and just you know, still be that girl from Garlands. Thank you so much for joining me.

SPEAKER_04 46:26

Thank you, Karim.

SPEAKER_06 46:28

I enjoyed it. I feel like we know you a long time. A long time, I know you're not you just don't know me. I mean, come on. So thank you so much, and um, all the best. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 46:39

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_06 46:40

Well, that's it, guys. That's this episode. Okay, the girl from Garlands was here, people. To be asked, I think people asked him a thing. And so thank you guys for watching. Remember to like, share, and subscribe. And I'll see you next time. Mark the Super Storm, helping you build your dream from the ground up and block the right way.