When Salome Kanini resigned one morning in 2016 to pursue her interest in cycling, both her peers and parents thought she had made a terrible decision.
She was then a personal assistant to a Senator.
“After leaving my job and started to live off my savings, I knew there was no way I could have survived without another job for long but this time I was very specific with what I wanted,” she says.
“I needed an employer who would allow me to pursue cycling whenever I needed and especially during races,” she says.
Most of the companies that offered to employ her, however, couldn’t give in to her wish, so she was jobless for a while.
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A few months down the line and when she was almost exhausting her savings and on the edge of giving up on her dream, she got a job at a company that granted her wish on one condition – she couldn’t be paid for the days she would be away from work.
One day as she was watching TV in the evening, she saw an advert for a cycling event that was to take place in Machakos County and thought of giving it a try.
“I discovered it was just a 50km race and decided to go for it. I ended up in position three in the women’s category and that inspired me to put in more effort and polish my cycling skills,” she adds.
“In 2019, I took part in the Sokoke Forest MTB challenge - Watamu where I was the winner. The same year I emerged third at the MTN MTB Challenge in Nairobi, in the 35km race.
“In 2017, I participated in Gatamaiyu Road Race (90km) where I emerged second. In 2019 again, I represented Kenya for the first time in cycling races at the All-Africa Games,” says Kanini.
In 2018, she started DadaRides, an outfit whose goal is to build a community of female cyclists in and out of Nairobi. “If I joined cycling for money, I could have given up already. Sponsorships are hard to come by since professional cycling is still a new concept in Kenya and this is why I started DadaRides.
“My aim is to build a community of cyclists and to change all the misconceptions associated with it,” she says.
In her efforts to create a safe and comfortable space where women interested in cycling can train, in March, Kanini and 19 members of DadaRides cycled from Nairobi to Mombasa to raise funds for a toilet at Ngong Forest sanctuary. Their three-day journey began at Nairobi city centre and they made stopovers in Kibwezi and Voi.
She plans to establish a bike parking rack at Ngong Forest sanctuary.
“I realised nothing is impossible as long as you have the will and the interest to pursue it,” she says.
