Young, energetic and self-made, Linda Jeruto Chemmutut, 28, is a pilot and the quality manager at Moi University School of Aerospace and Science in Eldoret. She shares her story with EDWIN CHESEREK
Linda flies Moi University’s two-engine Cessna 162 and is tasked with ensuring that the quality standards set by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority are adhered to in the institution’s training programme. She is the only woman pilot at the university’s School of Aerospace and Science, while the other three in the team are men.
For starters, she says: "Flying high in the aviation industry is no easy task, but it is harder for women, given our social norms and traditional backgrounds."
Linda has achieved her childhood dream, to be a pilot. |
White women flying
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The second born in a family of three, Linda says she can comfortably and safely fly the one-engine Cessna for training students and the two-engine for commercial.
A poor family background coupled with cultural beliefs that strangle the girl child’s education and career did not stand in the way of Linda’s bid to achieve her goal in life — to be a pilot.
Born and brought up in Tot division, Marakwet East District, where cattle rustling and banditry is rampant, Linda defied all odds to achieve her dream.
After her secondary education in 1995, she could not proceed to college due lack of school fees and so she stayed home for four long years.
"I looked after our animals after I completed my secondary education and I almost gave up on being a pilot," she says.
Her passion for the air began in her childhood. Despite not having read about aviation, the rural girl developed interest when her elder brother regaled her with tales of white women flying planes.
"My original intention was to become a musician but when I saw planes flying over our home and landing at an airstrip in the neighbourhood I became inquisitive," Linda recalls.
She adds: "I asked my father if he could afford to take me to Cooper Motors Corporation (CMC) School of Aviation in Nairobi but he told me it was too expensive."
Her father wanted her to choose an alternative course but she would hear none of it. She would not change her dream. She was willing to wait.
Determined to pursue the career, she applied for an admission to CMC School of Aviation in Nairobi and was invited to sit an aptitude test in 2000, which she passed.
School fees remained a major problem and her father had to organise a fundraising where they raised Sh200, 000 against the more than Sh1 million required by the institution.
Dropped out
"When I took the money to the college I was told what I had paid was just a down payment and was allowed to study only for two years," she recalled.
In early 2001, Linda dropped out of college after two years because she could not proceed with her studies until she cleared the unpaid school fees.
Luck came knocking on her door two years on, in 2003, when she came across an advert in a local daily that required interested applicants to apply to pursue aviation in Sydney, Australia.
"I looked at it and realised the school does not charge any higher than CMC and I went on to apply and got it," recalls a humble Linda.
She remained hopeful that her dream would come true. Indeed, she was invited to join the school in 2003 to pursue an Advanced Diploma in Aviation from 2003 to 2006.
Yet another fundraising spree, in which well-wishers raised Sh2.5 million, saw her join Sydney College of aviation.
The standards of aviation offered in Australia, she says, were higher than that offered in Kenya and she had to start from scratch.
"That did not kill my dream of being a pilot. I used to tell myself that the past cannot define my future," he says.
Despite the challenges she pursued her studies with a lot of determination and acquired her Private Pilot License and a Commercial Pilot license with multi-engine instrument rating.
"The instrument rating is useful for detecting poor visibility when flying into the clouds," she explains.
Linda, who is an alumnus of St George’s High School in Nairobi has been a pilot for three years now.
Pilot and Quality Manager of Moi University School of Aerospace, Ms Linda Jeruto 28, inspects the cockpit instrument air panel at the Eldoret Air strip. Photos: Peter Ochieng |
No gender bias
"When I completed my studies and came back to Kenya, I landed the job because I arrived at the time Moi University was launching the School of Aerospace and Science," she tells Woman’s Instinct.
Asked whether she is ever scared of taking to skies, she jokingly says every activity has its own risks and we should be prepared for any eventualities.
She says she has now made it her personal agenda to encourage girls to venture into male dominated fields.
Says she: "Look how far a simple village girl can get with ambition and a little help! I wish to inspire women to explore their potential, especially in those careers considered as a preserve of men."
She, however, does not deem herself as having achieved success yet.
"The sky, I guess, is no longer a limit for me," quips Linda.
She goes round schools encouraging students to target careers like aviation, engineering, and medicine.
"It is important to find mentors who have gone before, and that is what is lacking in some of our communities. I managed to venture the aviation industry only because there was no gender bias in our family," she says.
As a pilot, she says, one does not have to aim at being employed by a big airline.
"What is important is first obtaining the Private Pilot’s License Public Pilot’s License, and these will open doors for a flying career," she advises.
Linda not only thrills students and lecturers at the university as a pilot, but has also become a role model for most of them. She hopes to soon go abroad for advanced training in acrobatic stunt-flying.
