Bio
Family and Education
I
was born on 20th October, 1964 to a beautiful Kikuyu mother and hardworking Greek father. I am the second born of five children and spent most of my childhood in the coastal town of Mombasa. I have four sisters and one brother. I am a mother of two lovely children; a daughter Makenna aged 13 years and a son Lefteris who is 9 years old.
Though I say I am a single parent my relationship with the father of my children is amicable and we share responsibility, but my status truly is that of a single parent. My early education was in private schools and I went up to Form 6 at the Aga Khan Secondary School where I did my A levels.
Career
My career started in the hotel industry at Nyali Beach Hotel where I worked hard and rose to position of sales and marketing manager. I moved to Nairobi and worked in sales for Adventure promotions and later for Africa Air Rescue. My leap to self employment started in my garage. Incidentally both my first two companies Sharp Images and Adopt A light started in garages.
As an entrepreneur I have been invited to various universities, many schools and social gatherings in Kenya to talk about success, business, social work, passion, being a woman in a “men’s world”, giving back, finding balance, and dealing with challenges. I have been featured by the media, called in for interviews and forums to discuss various political, social and economic issues facing our country. This to me has been a humbling experience considering that I have yet to attain that university degree that I believe earns one the right to be heard? I don’t take any of my life’s journeys for granted. I thank my God for my achievements this far and trust that I am on the right route towards my destiny.
Concern
I led a sheltered life, my parents never really exposed to me the poverty that surrounds us today. I am inclined to think it was not there when I was growing up. I tend to believe that our institutions kind of functioned then. I didn’t realize how fortunate we were as a family until I met Kenyans in the slums of Nairobi who did not have access to the basic necessities of life – shelter, water, sanitation and food. They lived in despair and not hope. As I looked further I realized they are in every neighborhood and they come out to work for us and go back to that “mess” to live after seeing us in our various paradises. It disturbed me, didn’t and still does not seem right. Slums are growing bigger, the conditions are getting worse, and our efforts so far have not and will not make a drastic and visible difference without proper planned and executed efforts.
The divide between the poor and rich in Kenya is not just wide but is increasing. I don’t know how many of us are comfortable in our luxury when we know what is brewing in our neighborhoods? The paradox of life is that the poor are filled with joy which always eludes the rich. Is there something we can take from each other? Lessons we can learn? Lives we can live? Journeys we can take? After all we are all related; deep within us we know we cannot ignore the people on the other side of the divide. Can we?
My Vision
As my life progresses with time and gets exposure to the injustices and contradictions that surround us, my inner voice says enough is enough – it’s time to act. We should address these problems now, today as tomorrow is too far away and might be too late.
The key ingredient is honesty. Greed has descended into all the facets of our community from our leadership and has crept amongst us and into our homes, our work force and social circle. The time to ACT is now.
We have to share, but to share, we have to care. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean we spoon feed anyone. But when one is in ICU you have to feed them until they get back on their feet and that is what we have to do. It is time we reached out and looked for solutions together.
You and I have the solutions. We need to address the myriads of the problems together as Kenyans for Kenyans.
My desire is that we get to work; I believe we can do this and be proud that we finally got it right as a people and a country.
