‘Our dad Ambrose Adongo brought out the best in us’

By Kwamboka Oyaro

Nairobi, Kenya: Being the daughter of the late fiery Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary General, Ambrose Adeya Adongo, one would expect Catherine Adeya, or Nyaki to her friends, to be a replica of her father.

However, the first impression of Catherine, the acting chief executive officer of Konza Tech City, is that of a humble and easy-going woman. After a while, however, one discerns her father’s fire burning in her. She is intolerant of mediocrity and driven by a desire to get the best results in everything she sets out to achieve.

The man who was known to the public, says Catherine, was different from the father who shaped her life – he wanted to see his six children grow to be whatever they dreamed. He moulded them early for their future careers in the public domain. “Besides teaching us to be the best, Dad taught us how to speak in public; how to stand before people, the first words to say and when to pause for effect.”

To emphasise this, he took them to his Knut meetings, especially fundraisers, to experience public speaking practically.

“When I was about ten, I accompanied my dad to a harambee. He gave me money and told me what to say as I ‘escorted’ him immediately after he had given his contribution.”

This became a routine for the children, who cherished the moments spent with their father, a man kept busy with union affairs.

“My name is Catherine Nyaki,” the little girl said loudly, “and I am here to ‘escort’ the Secretary General Ambrose Adeya Adongo.”

Out there, he was not Daddy but the SG. People applauded. The little girl was excited. Later that evening, as was the family norm, they discussed the day and how they had fared. The children were encouraged to believe in themselves.

Adongo also encouraged his children to excel in extra-curricula activities. The six of them are good in various sports. Sister Caren, an educationist, was the first Kenyan female International Hockey Federation grade hockey umpire and first Kenyan woman to be awarded the African Female Umpire of the Year title in 2008.

Sadly, says Catherine, modern parents are more interested in homework and academic performance than helping their children discover their innovative talents.

“Let your children explore, allow them to fail to succeed,” she says.

Her parents never compared the children, nor did they show any biases; something that prepared Catherine for parenting her own three daughters – aged 20 and two-year-old twins (it took her and husband ten years of trying and science to have the twins).

“We had timetables that listed everything – time for study, play, chores and family meetings. Our mother, the late Winnie Adeya, ensured that all of us, boys and girls, did chores in turns. My brothers are as good in the kitchen as we, their three sisters, are.”

Catherine, 45, reveals that her mother turned down a promotion to be an inspector of schools, opting to remain an ordinary teacher so she could focus on her children’s upbringing due to her husband’s busy job. Only after her last child was through with high school did Winnie became a headmistress at Makini School.

Ironically, Catherine, an ‘A’ student who got her PhD degree in Information and Development from Edinburgh, Scotland, at age 28, grew up feeling inadequate compared to her younger sister, Grace, now a medical doctor in the US and her eldest brother Ben, a banker in Nairobi.

“I compared myself to my siblings, who were such high achievers. In our family I felt like the ‘daftest’. I was sandwiched between my older brother Ben and sister Grace. Grace was always top in everything academic – she was top in the country in CPE, in O’ levels and A’ levels.

“Ben was also among the top ten in the country in CPE and scored the highest marks in mathematics in the country. Despite the fact that my parents encouraged and celebrated me, I never felt good enough. Even when I started playing the piano and did better than my other siblings, I still felt they were too smart,” says Catherine, wife of former Alego-Usonga MP Sammy Weya.

Yet Catherine, who wanted to do law or education at university but changed to IT after discussions with her father, went on to top the pioneering Information Technology class at Moi University in 1992. Based on her performance, she got a scholarship to do her masters in Scotland. Her thesis was so good that the professors recommended she should present it as a proposal for her PhD. She did, and continued studying on scholarship.

“My father was against me settling down to start a family before completing my studies,” she reveals. “He said this would destabilise me and insisted there was always time for marriage and raising a family.”

Adongo did not believe that anything was impossible if one set out to do one’s best. If, during family meetings, an academic argument was not resolved, it was escalated to university professors (relatives and friends).

At these meetings, current affairs always featured on the agenda, which gave the children a wider view of the world. This family tradition prepared the Adongo children competently for the world stage on which they now play.

Adongo insisted that his children measured themselves with the best in the world. With this in mind, Catherine pushed herself harder at university despite topping her class exam after exam.

“I saw myself as a player at the world forum. And if I were to play well, I had to be the best.” 

Guided by her father’s counsel to stick to integrity and truth no matter what, and to confront situations without fear, Catherine took up the new role at Konza City early last year with gusto.

Technology is a subject she understands and being at the apex presented her with the challenge she yearned for.

It was a long journey to this point. Catherine was among the many Kenyans who quit lucrative jobs abroad to come back home in 2003 when there was a clarion call to ‘return the brains out there home’.

At the time she was working with the UN in the Netherlands and was in her fourth year at the job.

In fact, she got the job in the strangest twist of fate. The UN was looking for someone with at least ten years’ experience but she got the job even before graduating for her PhD. She was curious about why her boss gave her the opportunity and a year later asked him. The boss, a White South African, said he liked her passion and the fact that she would inject new blood to the organisation.

Curiously, he confided that he had a soft spot for Africans, having been raised by a Black nanny while his parents pursued careers.

She says many of those who came home during that time of euphoria were frustrated and returned abroad. But Catherine was unable to return, her husband having been elected MP.

She would be invited for interviews but always got a familiar response: “You are overqualified” or “the job requires a lot of travelling, when will you take care of your husband?”

She consulted and wrote for international organisations and was recognised for her work in ICT “out there”. Companies from different parts of the world offered her jobs, while in Kenya she was forgotten. At one point, she wrote to her mentor, Prof Calestous Juma, a long email listing her woes and dilemma. Then Juma replied in one sentence, “I would rather your brains were drained than damaged.”

But she did not take the plunge to return abroad. She settled into the duties of being an MP’s wife but remained active in the local ICT sector. She published. She attended ICT meetings.

In 2007, the then Minister for Communication Mutahi Kagwe appointed her a member of the Kenya ICT Board. Her activism had earned her recognition. She had joined various task forces on ICT before them. Sometimes she was a volunteer.

Now at Konza City, Catherine is one of the key drivers of Kenya’s Vision 2030. She is determined to see the city become a reality in the next few months.