Yvonne Adhiambo is an award-winning writer who cites Nairobi as her muse but it isn’t a comfortable relationship she shares with the city. She explains “I was born in Nairobi, I grew up in Nairobi, I was formed by Nairobi. It has been my city but it has also been the place of my haunting. I keep thinking I need to exorcise Nairobi from my soul.” Perhaps part of Yvonne’s ambivalence for the city comes from the gap between the […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
One of forty female pilots out of her company’s 500, Wanjiru didn’t always dream of joining an airline. After her passing her exams she sat down at her computer and googled “What should I do for a career?”. A personality test suggested she do a series of desk-bound finance jobs, but somewhere around option 6 she was recommended “airline pilot”. Her family was skeptical, no one they knew was in the business and there was this reputation that pilots behaved […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
Nadia is an artist at Nairobi’s Go-Down Arts Centre, a former warehouse that now houses and promotes artists and creativity from across the city. She has two favourite mediums, charcoal for portraits and acrylics for more abstract work. She paints in vivid tones; purple, blue, orange and yellow. Nadia’s studio at the Go-Down has offered her both a space to work and a revenue stream, visitors to the arts centre provide a steady volume of customers. It is remarkable that […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
Bidanya thinks that more Kenyans should eat Sukuma Wiki. “It means to push the week on, to push on till the end of the week when you can buy your chicken” she explains, Bidnaya is concerned about the current generation’s fixation on “Nyama Choma” because of its health consequences. A responsible lifestyle is a driving force for Bidanya, four years ago she managed to beat colon cancer and now she believes that she needs to share the lessons she learnt. […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
Aprelle Duany left her life in New York to move first to Juba with her South Sudanese husband and now Nairobi. She wants her new luxury accessories brand to reflect this journey, she explains that “the experience I’ve had in Africa is different from what I thought it would be….the Western perspective of Africa is horrible, you see starving children, you see famine, you see devastation so that’s what I thought Africa was.” Though Juba was a challenge it also […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
Mugethi is Community Manager at iHub, Nairobi’s tech hub and co-working space. iHub has become a model hub in Africa for other countries and towns hoping to build something similar. It is part of Mugethi’s role to meet with these groups and offer insights on how this structure can work for them. She says she took “the scenic route” to iHub but what a journey it’s been! For a woman that calls herself a “geeky girl” she has already trodden […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
Annabel prides herself on being a hustler. She says “There’s a good connotation to the word. It used to be about struggling in the streets…now it’s about making your own success for yourself by yourself.” Annabel is a stylist and image consultant and has become in her own words “a successful fashion entrepreneur”. She is considered a “cultural influencer” for global companies who see Africa as the last frontier for their businesses. It is Annabel that international brands approach to […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
Mumbi was #SheIsNairobi’s littlest (in height) lady as well as the youngest but she can more than hold her ground amongst the powerhouses involved in the campaign. She is a violinist with the National Youth Orchestra of Kenya (KNYO). Music is her passion but from 9 to 5 Mumbi is a Financial Economist. Mumbi believes that the Nairobi environment still doesn’t consider creative professions as a viable option “You know the problem is its been inculcated in us that the […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
Marie didn’t come to Nairobi with a romantic idea of a wild continent or to help work on a charity cause, she came in her words to “jump start her career”. Launching herself as a Foreign Correspondent Nairobi seemed the ideal base. In 2006 the city was a very different place, Marie remembers one of her first stories “It was about the boom of supermarkets…which at the time seemed very exciting.. That was one of the first indications of a […]
Categories: She Is Nairobi
she shapes the city