My story is intertwined with Lapid.

I joined FilamuJuani as a student and I’m now the acting CEO, but it’s been a very up and down process. I have been fired from this same organisation but God still had a good plan for me even when I was at my lowest. In 2016, I’d just finished the program at Lapid and had tried doing some odd jobs, as I was done with my coursework at Campus preparing to graduate. I worked in print marketing but hated it because of being indoors. Then one of the mentors at Lapid took me to a friend’s bakery but I left after a few months and went to serve at Lapid. 

I’d asked Esther (CEO) how I could be of help; In that process a mentor wasn’t able to make it for a communications class due to his schedule but offered to give a scholarship to someone who’d love to learn. At that time I didn’t know I loved storytelling but knew that I liked writing, reading books and telling stories. This wasn’t something I’d looked at as a calling in my life but Esther had seen it in me thus when this opportunity came, she directed that I go for it. After two months of learning, I became an intern in October 2016 even though I knew I really wasn’t any good but I could hold a camera and take a good photo; and the teachers thought I had something in me. 

In 2017, my bosses liked my work and I was confirmed as an employee. Then a big MNET project came in June and I was placed as a production manager. For six months, I produced 4 seasons of the One-In-A -Million TV series. In between I did many other projects – writing and producing until I got fired in December 2017. Back then, I was very hot-headed and stubborn and felt that earning KES 60,000, put me on top of the world. No one could tell me anything. I was fired and reinstated twice within a month until my boss had to let me go. As much as I had faced some false allegations, my boss had repeatedly tried to give me feedback on my attitude and behaviours but I was too self-absorbed to listen. 

It was crazy as I had nowhere to go, even home as I’d hustled my way through campus but now I couldn’t even pay my KES 20,000 rent. Depression began setting in as I sat home for the first two months of 2018, barely eating trying to survive until my mum figured out that something wasn’t right. She intervened, by bailing me out and took me to a house in Zimmerman where she paid rent for two months. 

I was still very bitter because I felt life had been very unfair, especially with work. I’d tried to go back and graduate but found so many issues like missing marks and a unit that needed to be done. I was at my lowest with no job, source of income and neither could I graduate – nothing was working for me. 

It was during this period, that the words of my former boss started coming to mind. He had told me that I needed to get grounded in humility, get closer to God and go through a self-awareness process. My response had been that I come from a humble background, I’ve gone through Lapid thus self-aware, I pray and read my bible therefore there was nothing valid in his feedback. But as the months dragged on, I had no choice but to reflect on myself, my faults and lean on God. I ended up hawking Safaricom lines on the streets of Nairobi moving with a roadshow from one neighborhood to another. The target was to sell twenty lines daily which could net me KES 800. 

I learnt humility in a new way, as I’d forgotten what it meant to not have; I’d revered my job, my title and all the perks that came along with it and when it all went, I was left dying inside. People who had previously called me Madame Producer were the ones I bumped into when I was hawking in my dusty shoes. I had nothing else to build my identity on other than Christ. I also started saving no matter how little I earned due to my background in sales and promotions on campus and wasn’t afraid of getting dirty; I soon became a top seller moving 30-40 lines daily which gave me so much hope. 

I was called for an Interview at 4UP digital and by August I started a new job. I had very little self-confidence going into this new job, but was learning and humility was still being cemented in me. In my previous job, I’d been a terrible leader shouting at people, stepping on toes, using my managerial position to step on and look down on people. 

It was my first time not being a boss, because even in the bakery, I’d been a supervisor. I had tough bosses and clients who expected much from me and demanded total excellence so I was practicing servant leadership. I ended up becoming a client manager until the company closed in February 2019. I stayed home for four months until my former boss at FilamuJuani called me. He’d be trying to reach out for months but I’d refused to pick or return calls due to anger and bitterness. However, in June I picked the call because I’d healed, forgiven and let go. He asked for a meeting where we talked, made amends from both ends but I also made it clear that I’d never work for the organisation again. 

A week later he called again to let me know that a huge contract had come in and what God was doing for the organisation. I politely wished him all the best but that night I couldn’t sleep. In my spirit I knew I had to step up and help because he didn’t have the capacity to execute. 

The next day, I called asking key questions about the training project but he had no clue and gave vague answers. This is when I realised that he was a visionary whilst I was operational. I told him I’d come in to set up the training interviews and leave as I had no interest in getting paid. On arrival, he had a contract for me. I declined gently by stating that I’d only take twice the offer knowing this wouldn’t be possible. However, he surprised me days later when he came back with an offer that was triple the original amount that the board had approved. 

I was dumbfounded and knew that God was working behind the scenes so I joined to run the school program and then the Operations manager. God was clear that I needed to create structures and systems with the organisation plus my boss was giving heavy tasks like doing the strategy documents. When the pandemic hit, we worked home for three months before returning back to work. 

My boss asked for a meeting before sitting with our team where we just talked about so many things including my lessons and life direction. At the end of it, he said that after prayer with his wife, they’d decided to either close the organisation they’d founded down or hand it over and that he needed to move to a new chapter. He finally said that he thought I was ready for the next challenge which was to run FilamuJuani as CEO. I didn’t process this at all and went straight for the money question and a bit of the role saying that I would think about it. Many hours later at home, feeling so overwhelmed and heavy, I lay on my floor and cried for 4 hours straight asking God why when I should be happy. 

The response I got was that this wasn’t not a position of power but of servitude. I felt small and tiny in this big world as compared to the God I serve but also felt seen. I was suddenly in the spotlight and all the work I’d put in over the years was coming to fruition. A few weeks later my boss got a very good job with a multinational company which led to a full blown panic attack in the office as it dawned on me that this was happening. 

I’d never imagined I’d be the CEO of this organisation but it turns out that I already had plans for it subconsciously. Lapid has been very instrumental in my progress. First, because I began my faith journey when I joined Lapid as I got curious about God. 

The community has been the biggest impact; when I’m stuck, there’s constant support to help me get unstuck; I can easily reach out to the mentor network and my close friends are from Lapid.