Had I not taken the initiative to follow after my dreams, I would not be where I am today. Going by my academic qualifications alone, I would be doing anything that came in handy.
I did not get grades that would have seen me admitted to a public university and a mid-level college was also out of the question. My parents were financially hard pressed and I was ready to resign to life as an academic failure.
I started my work life as a supermarket attendant in Nakuru town shortly after high school and after a while, I quit to work as a real estate agent with Royal Gate Limited, a real estate agency also in Nakuru town. I knew my calling in life lay elsewhere and I was sort of unsettled with my first two jobs.
While in high school, I was nicknamed the ‘broadcaster’. This happened during a sports event, I took the microphone and wowed teachers and students alike with my oratory skills relaying events that were taking place in the field. I knew I was at home with a microphone in hand.
When Touch FM, a radio station, opened its doors in Nakuru around 2006, I applied for work. I did not have the requisite academic qualifications they were looking for but I talked the manager into auditioning me. He was impressed with the outcome and hired me on the spot. It was from here that I embarked into the world of broadcast journalism.
At Touch FM, I was the English news anchor as well as specialising in other programmes. I later moved to Sauti ya Mwananchi, which broadcasts from Nakuru, where I once again hosted the breakfast shows, before moving to work with Radio Tehran in Iran.
When my contract with Radio Tehran ended, I came back home and found work at Hero FM, an entity also broadcasting from Nakuru. I hosted breakfast shows while dabbling as the head of radio. I worked for about a year before moving to CCTV Africa, Nairobi bureau, as a broadcast script writer and a voice artist. My stint with this station ended at the close of last year before I finally opened my own radio station dubbed Fahari FM, in Nakuru, which broadcasted in Swahili.
The station did not do well and I found myself employed to host breakfast shows at Milele FM while trying to resuscitate my fledgling business.
After doing lots or research, I realised each community wants to identify with a media disseminating information in their own dialect. I therefore rebranded and renamed my radio station calling it Ithaga FM, which means a crown in Kikuyu. This gamble paid off.
Today, I work full time at my radio station and the returns have been good. I am also an employer, having created job opportunities for a few young people.
Looking back, I can say nothing is impossible and all dreams are valid if we pursue them diligently.
