Millie Odhiambo : From a shy village girl to a tough cookie

Growing up, Millie Odhiambo was a shy, village girl. Her widowed mother had the Herculean task of bringing up eight children. Her mum was a conservative but liberated woman. “You do not have to be in an unhappy marriage, she would tell them.”The one thing I wished I had in my childhood was a pony,” says Millie.

The books she read as a child influenced this, she says. Being shy, however, did not stop her from standing up for what she felt was right. Most of Millie’s high school days were punctuated with run-ins with the school administration.

She was in St Francis Girls, Rang’ala for her O Levels, where she was the top student with a nFirst Division before joining Limuru Girls for her A levels. Being a poor girl in a rich girl’s school hardened her. “Everyone in school wore a tie and a brown sweater while I had no tie and had to wear this funny maroon sweater my aunt made for me,” she says.

Her woes at Limuru Girls started when the Headmistress was briefing the girls on an upcoming trip to Israel. Millie knew it was a tall order for her mother and she did not hesitate to point it out.

“Some of us can’t even a afford a trip to Chogoria. Why are we here discussing Israel?” she challenged the Headmistress.

Millie was a bright student though she was always in trouble with the administration. She was appointed prefect and later Deputy House Captain but always got demoted either because she refused to do Pure Sciences and opted for social sciences or had asked the Headmistress why she looked down on them, poor girls.

Today, she has no regrets for all the drama she might have caused in school, as she believed it was for a worthy cause. Thanks to her personality, she has managed to go beyond her wildest dreams.

She attributes this to her three dominant personalities; Sanguine, Choleric and Melancholic. She has managed to balance out her extroverted and introverted sides and will present what she feels works depending on place and time.