Safety first

She wears many hats. Pierra Makena, in her 20s, is a radio presenter, actress and the Kenya Roads Board ambassador and the brains behind the Sio Lazima road safety campaign. She spoke to Stevens Muendo

The festive time is here with us, the joyous period of the year when cases of road accidents dampen the good spirits as Kenyans reckon with devastating news of loss of life on the roads.

Road safety is a major concern as Pulsators prepare to paint the towns red this festive season and its getting attention from all quarters.

"It’s unfortunate to watch people hoping to make merry perish on their way to their destinations. That is why I have teamed-up with the Kenya Roads Board and other partners to run Road Safety campaigns throughout this season." Says Pierra.

With an array of celebrity singers on board, Pierra will lead a convoy of cars from Nairobi to Mombasa come next week, in a trip which the gospel of Road Safety will be preached to motorists and Kenyans in major towns along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

"In appealing to motorists to take extra precautions during this season, we will be stopping in all the highway towns to talk to motorists. We also intend to take motorists through First Aid training procedures and St Johns Ambulance personnel will be at hand to impart the skills," she reveals.

In Mombasa, the team plans to host a major beach party where besides having fun, appeals of safe driving will be key.

According to Pierra, most of the youth who seek fun during Christmas beach parties are Nairobians and end up over indulging, therefore endangering their lives.

"A number of local celebrities have lost their lives on the roads so we have Pulsers who die on drunken driving. It is not enough when we say the law will catch up with them. There is need for friendly interaction and that is why we are taking it upon ourselves to pass the word round," Pierra maintains.

Besides, campaigning for safe use of our roads, Pierra is also an accomplished actress. Starring as Cindy Kamau in the MNet-screened Kenyan TV drama series Changes, Pierra comes out as a cruel blonde who will let nothing stand in the way of her anticipated desire.

On the other hand, Cindy’s boyfriend, Minja Kabwe, is a wealthy but mysterious man who is generous and ruthless, in equal measure. Minja’s closely guarded secrets are the reasons behind this couple’s woes. Cindy tries to wiggle through the mixed fortunes and romantic traps with unfortunate twists as a dark past pops its rare head, starting to haunt her.

Her outstanding role in the cast, whose members are seasoned actors and actresses drawn from across East Africa, has won her regional accolades making her one of the fast rising actresses in the country.

She is versatile and could play almost any character in any given film. Yet, in her own confession, the beauty — who became a household with her roles in TV drama series Tahidi High and Kisuli Suli— says her role as Cindy has been the most challenging yet favourite encounter in her 10-year acting career.

"When the series started, acting Cindy, a blonde, was a real upward task. No wonder, from the day of the auditions, it took a year before any one could be entrusted with the role", she remarks.

"It took me great courage to do gross scenes like passionate kissing and pole-dancing. It was through intense training that I was able to assume the character of Cindy", she says.

"Someone from Hollywood had to be paid to take me through this transformation", she adds.

The intrigues in the drama series revolve around the difficulties facing modern marriages with questions raised on their survival especially when strong ambitions of two busy career professionals intimately collide with their tense personal lives.

So passionate about acting is Pierra that even if the career wasn’t paying back prudently, she says that she would still act. Incidentally, much like her character in Changes, Pierra’s real life is a tale that spins around different worlds.

She is also a prolific radio presenter working with the newly launched youthful One FM.

Yet even with all these responsibilities, Pierra reckons that her dream is far from achieved.

"I have a passion for everything I do. Besides, I am a little single girl trying to make it in life. My radio show and other duties at One FM are a great platform for me to enhance my media profession. Besides, my heart is on the Road Safety Campaign whose success is my greatest joy" she says proudly.

"Soon, part of my radio show will have a segment dedicated to Road Safety debates", she divulges.