STORIES FROM MY HEART

In 1998, I packed my bags and left our home in Kitale to pursue a course in acting. I was 18, I thought I'd be back home to wait for university admission after my course. I didn’t return. I found my dream. I stayed in Nairobi, as an actress in a theatre travelling troupe. Our first play was The Government Inspector, and I played his daughter, Marya. I also had my first stage kiss then. I was 19, and ahem...legal. I stayed with relatives until I was 22, and when I completed my diploma in Broadcast Journalism, I trooped off to KBC to find work. I wasn’t turned away, I knew I wouldn’t be turned away, I had done my groundwork during several internships there, and my work ethic spoke for itself. Fast forward to today, 12 years later, and I like to think, eons wiser. I've worked in a few places, made and broken friends and relations, grown networks and learnt a few things about what opens doors. 1. Your work ethic will speak for you. I'm a hard worker. Years later ...

When I first listened to Chimamanda Adichie's talk 'The danger of a single story' I was a young business journalist working for CNBC Africa, and this new found patriotism for the continent had flooded my mind and all I wanted was a better Africa, in perception, and also in tangible terms. For 18 minutes I was engrossed in her thoughts of how Africa's perception has been shaped through time. Right then I knew that this is the space I wanted to be in. A place where Africans can passionately speak about their continent,what they are doing to make it a better place, despite the world seeing it as a dark and hopeless continent, as the Economist one called it. So when I bumped into my friend Suraj Sudhakar of the Acumen fund just a day before Ted Talk held its audition for African Speakers in Nairobi, I knew that I wanted to bed there. To be re-energized by other believers of a successful Africa. TEDtalks are Ideas worth sharing. In their own terms, they say, Rivetin...