Be Inspired : Dr Susan Kiragu - University of Cambridge Graduate.

For many young children growing up in Kenya, settling for a profession to put food on the table instead of pursuing their dreams to travel and change the world is a common practice due to the lack of opportunities and support from their parents and communities.

Many Kenyans grow up hoping to one day travel abroad in search of better educational and professional opportunities, but financial constraints coupled with expectations from their relatives to support and provide for their siblings, cousins and parents often force them to ignore their dreams so that they can focus on earning a paycheck doing jobs they don’t love.

For Dr. Susan Kiragu, her journey abroad to become a successful member of Kenya’s Diaspora community was only possible because her parents “opened the door and equipped me with the possibility that the world was mine for the taking.”

“I remember when I was 11, my dad was driving me to school and he was not pleased with how I had performed in school that term (I was number 7 I think),” she recalled smiling. “He went on a rant about how I had great brains and was university material and I could even be president if I wanted,” she said.

Kiragu went on to excel in her academics, graduating from Kahuhia Girls High School at the top of the class before earning a Bachelor’s degree in education and music from Kenyatta University and a Masters degree in sociology of education from the University of Nairobi. “I must say that my parents and the love they have for me has been the greatest motivator, and having a happy childhood where I felt loved, safe and wanted set the foundation,” she said.

It was this confidence from her parents and their belief in her abilities that inspired Kiragu to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) in 2005 in pursuit of a PhD in education, which she completed in 2008 from the University of Cambridge after completing a thesis titled ‘Exploring young people’s sexuality in a poor community in Kenya: a case study’. Her parents played a huge role in her desire to pursue a life abroad, but so did her aunt who had married a foreigner when it was still not very common to do so and gone on to further her studies in Europe, getting her Masters and PhD.

“To me she just had the ‘coolest’ life, jet setting and seeing the world and earning lots of money. At least that’s how I saw it through my teenage eyes and I yearned for such a life,” she recalled.
“I grew up in this context of possibilities and exposure, of love and assurance, and moral setting too, and that’s the foundation that channeled the very possibility that I could travel abroad, let alone study and work there as well,” she explained.

In early 2005 while working as a researcher at a local NGO in Nairobi, she applied for a PhD at the University of Cambridge, got a full scholarship and according to her, “the rest is history”. She makes it sounds easy enough, but she emphasised that the transition from having a dream and actually living it are two completely different things.

“Most Kenyans back home think that life is much easier abroad because they convert the money you earn in pounds or dollars, maybe per hour, and see that as a lot, but they forget that the cost of living abroad is much higher,” she stressed. Kiragu blames this misperception of what it’s like to live abroad on the Western owned media. “Because the West owns the media, it is not very clear to Africa that there’s even a deep recession going on at the moment that has seen unemployment rise, along with the costs of public spending and benefits cut,” she said. “Thus, perhaps many a relative in the Diaspora have lost their jobs or are juggling several jobs just to keep afloat, yet they are still expected to send money back home. Life for such a person is a living nightmare,” she acknowledged. Her own transition to the UK was not without some speed bumps, but she adjusted over time thanks to the diversity she found in Cambridge. “The University of Cambridge is probably one of the most international communities in the world so most of us graduate students who were away from home were excited to meet each other and learn about new cultures,” she asserted.

She remembered fondly how her and her Kenyan friends would meet and cook Kenyan food like chapati, beef stew, githeri, ugali, sukumawiki, plantain, pilau, nyama choma and kachumbari, while they would reminisce about home and encourage each other over the pressures they faced from their studies.
“We discussed politics and even dreamed of changing Kenya for the better, joking that such were the very conversations that our founding fathers Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkurumah etc. had when they were in the UK – plan and dream for a better Africa!” she said.

Eventually some of her colleagues at Cambridge including Dr Vincent Owino (Kenya), Dr Zachary Lomo (Uganda), Dr Justin Echouffo Tcheugui (Cameroon) and Dr Martin Atela (Kenya)) formed an association called Network for African Development (NafAD). NafAD is made up of African students and other students at the University of Cambridge who are interested in African issues and the organization holds interactive seminars to discuss critical issues in Africa.

“Though we have all moved on in our careers now, we are implementing some of the vision that we shared through these meetings,” she confirmed.

In Cambridge, she also said she found an environment that enabled her to become successful thanks to the relationships she was able to establish with her professors. “At the University of Cambridge, the boundaries of hierarchy are grey, not as sharply cut out as in Kenya, which generally embraces the African traditions of respect and authority to elders,” she said. “These dulled boundaries have been instrumental to my growth and boosted my confidence in my abilities, because I have freedom to interact with even our director in a very collegial space,” she stated.


She has even been acknowledged as a successful migration story by the university and Deutsche Welle (DW) media, a German international broadcaster that offers in-depth, reliable news and information in 30 languages including Arabic, Kiswahili, Indonesian, Urdu, Russian, Spanish, German and English.

Thanks to her network of Kenyans within Cambridge, Kiragu social adjustment was almost seamless, but this was not the case when attempting to get used to the UK’s weather and food. “The hardest thing to get used to was the grey UK weather and bitter cold in winter. However with time I have learned to dress in layers and I am used to it now,” she said.

“What I do not like is the snow. It’s beautiful and fairytale-like on the first day, but turns to a nightmarish health hazard when it melts into ice; slipping and falling is common during the winter,” she stated.
She also had difficulty adjusting to the taste of the food and the bland taste of the meat in the UK actually forced her to become a vegetarian during her first year abroad.

“The fish was too fishy and the beef and chicken were lacking in flavor. I also found the salt not strong enough and I had to pour on so much to my food to make up for the bland taste,” she said.
“Tropical fruits like mango, papaya and passion fruits were also exorbitantly priced and I stuck to apples and oranges. Often I used to carry Kenyan spices and tea, if only to salvage the food,” she revealed.
Kiragu eventually got used to the British cuisine and after completing her PhD in 2008, decided to remain in the UK after receiving a job opportunity to work as an educational researcher for The Centre for Commonwealth Education at the University of Cambridge.

Her research interests include understanding why children ‘drop into school’- research with children who face a myriad of hardships but do not drop out of school; and constructing hybrid sexuality education curricula through consultation with pupils, teachers, parents and other school stakeholders.
She strongly believes in research for social justice and inclusion of indigenous knowledge’s in curriculum and though the offices at Cambridge, her research projects have been in 23 schools in 5 provinces in Kenya.

“I’ve had the privilege of living in two worlds and being able to use my knowledge and expertise in my home country, which has its pros as Cambridge provides me with facilities and access to the latest literature in my field,” she said. “Kenya is where my heart and work is, so I’m able to interpret and transfer the theory I have learned, practically to the ground in Kenya,” she stated.

Her research on Kenya and her love for children resulted in a book published earlier this year called “Old Enough to Know: Consulting Children about Sex Education”, which she co-authored with her colleagues.
The book is based on qualitative research that they did in eight schools in Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.
“We investigated the sources, contents and processes of how children who are away from school understand sexual knowledge and we asked how this interacted with AIDS education programmes in schools,” she explained.

 “To collect the data, we used a triangulation of engaging, interactive and visual methods including digital still photography, mini-video documentaries, as well as interviews and observations,” she added.


She credited these innovative methods with allowing children to speak freely and openly about sex and sexuality, in contexts where such talk would be seen as a cultural taboo.
“The research also shed light on teachers’ fears and struggles with a lack of training and limited opportunities for reflection on practice and it further created space for school community dialogue with conflicting voices of community stakeholders who are both aware of the dangers faced by children living in a world with AIDS and who are also afraid of the many cultural, religious and moral restraints to sex education in Africa,” she revealed.

Kiragu and her colleague Dr. Colleen McLaughlin returned to Nairobi in April to launch the book, but she often returns to Kenya several times a year for research and other service based responsibilities.
In 2009, after seeing real poverty in the schools in Kajiado, she climbed Mt. Kenya to raise funds to build a dormitory so that children wouldn’t have to walk 2-4 hours on their way to school, which sometimes put them in danger of rape or abuse from “waylaying” men.

“I managed to raise £600 (Sh78,668) through friends and we managed to buy some building stones. However the stones are still there as we have not found a sponsor to help us continue with the work,” she said.

Kiragu is still looking for someone to sponsor her vision but even while in the UK, she continues to look for ways to give back to Kenyan communities, especially to children.

“I have been collecting bras from my neighborhood in Cambridge thanks to my landlady Joy Barker who started spreading the word to her networks after I shared with her my experiences with girls in Kenya who were short of underwear and bra’s,” she said.

“Shortly after she got the word out, people started bringing us bras and it has not stopped. It’s over a year now and we have collected about 800 bras, which I distribute to our school communities when I come to Kenya,” she revealed. With the help of her colleague Dr. Molly Warrington, she has also been able to collect and donate new underwear, along with writing tools for students after she realized to her horror that they were even sharing pens. Unlike some Kenyans that travel abroad and decide to remain out there, Kiragu yearns of returning back to live and work in Kenya for good.

“I would love to move back to Kenya to continue the current research that I am doing. I have a heart for children, especially children who suffer and I have been working with some poor children for four years now,” she explained.

“My goal is to learn from research but go beyond it and have resources for holistic interventions; and being on the ground would help me be more effective,” she said.



Be truly inspired.

Be Inspired Part 1 :

Hey dolls, I know I haven't updated my blog for just over a week now. Its been extremely hectic with work, preprations of going back to university after nearly 5 months off. When I say my mind is on auto-pilot don't take it lightly. Anyway the next week or so I will be doing a "Be Inspired" posts. This is just show casing individuals in the world who have inspired me and I hope they will inspire you too.

So today I start of with : Jamala McFaden.

 Jamala McFaden, President of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys (GABWA). GABWA supports Black women attorneys, advocates for women and children, empowers those in their community and more.

As you may realize, we live in what’s frequently viewed as a “man’s world.” To be a woman AND black AND an attorney is no small feat.

Be Inspired !!

Ambition & Why It Is Important.

It is not difficult to imagine a world short of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world: with out demands, without abrasions, without disappointments. People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would never enter in. Conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past. The stress of creation would be at an end. Art would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions. Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct ball mill. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.

Ah, how unrelieved boring life would be!

There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Does this mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? That the efforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of movements and events now not all success, obviously, is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon enough learns on one’s own. But even the most cynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity.

We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to jaw crusher die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.

A person without any ambition in life is like a ship without a rudder. He has no destination. He does not have urge to make a start. He reaches no where. He is tossed about like a straw in the wind. He achieves nothing in life. So everybody should have an ambition in life. But simply having ambition is not enough whatever the ambition be, it must be backed up by continuous efforts to achieve it. If a person sets an ambition before him, but does nothing to achieve it, his ambition is no more than idle dream or a pious resolution.


Peace & Love :-)

A Womans Worth :

A Woman's Worth

A woman's beauty is not only

In the glow of her skin

But the depth of her eyes

And the warmth of her heart

A woman's strength is not only

In the bow of her back

But the magnitude of her tears

And the softness of her words

A woman's wisdom is not only

In the value of her words

But the knowledge of when to hold them

And the journey she takes to learn them

A woman's courage is not only

In her determination to fight

But her willingness to walk away

And confidence to say no

A woman's grace is not only

In the way she dances through her day

But in the love notes she leaves

And the wonderful meals she prepares

A woman's love is not only

In the kisses she gives

But in the sacrifices she makes

And the moments given to you alone

A woman's worth is not only

In the things she does

But who she truly is

And who she helps you become

~ Mary Costanza -A Woman's Heart And Soul 

Love this !

Why the Lords Should Remain Unelected :

 The Liberal Democrats are engaged in another one of their half-baked attempts to threaten the Tory right-wingers. It will end in tears for them again. The Tories are laughing at them. So is everyone else.
This two-pronged threatening strategy involves getting The Guardian to report that unnamed senior LDs are considering drastic action and then, two days later, getting a minor LD like Lord Rennard to reassure the Tories that they don't really mean it. They want to rock the boat without actually rocking any boats. 

It is almost impossible to believe that Clegg was serious when he penned his proposals for Lords reform. A chamber containing 80% elected individuals, serving for 15 years. That is three normal parliaments. But furthermore elected by PR. For God's sake, the British people have already rejected the AV system. How could they accept the even more divisive PR system? No Clegg wishes to condemn the British voters to the balance of power residing with the most unpopular of the three main parties. The man is an anti democracy idiot. Do these mindless idiots seriously think that having, what do they call it "stable government", is more important to us all than the NHS, Education, Police, Defence, Justice, jobs, decent benefits, pensions, pay,children, the old, the sick and disabled, and so on? Give us unstable government, and bring it on, if it means keeping all those things we value so very much that have been created and developed through the dedication of entire life spans, commitment and a sense of loyalty and fairness to all the British and not just the elite who appear to consider themselves the only real British, and would gladly love to see universal suffrage repealed. Lords reform is not that important to your average voter. Protecting the NHS, tuition fees, taxing the richest for their fair share, tackling labours surveilance state, getting the rapacious financial industry in check, protecting the welfare state against private monopoly vultures and making sure the poor and vulnerable are taken care of are though, and the Lib Dems have failed miserably on each and every one of these points. In fact their actions in government have been pretty much an attack on all of these things.Not only that they out and out lied to their voting support to do it. The word "Clegg" is now synonymous with the phrase "lying, two faced betrayer with no backbone". Someone used the term "Judas Goat" above to describe the lib dems and it is a very fitting description, come the next election their will be nothing left of them

So here's my suggestion to all those who want to vote it in and also to make Lords reform possible and popular. Everybody loves the Olympics rights? How about then we have a Lords Olympics, a series of events determining whether people can sit the house of Lords. Broadcast live 24/7 on BBC ParliamentSport. With events like the Constitutional Slalom where competitors Debate Federalism while negotiating a white water rafting course. Or the 400metre buck pass. Where competitors pass responsibility of important matters like transport on a running track. Or double trap pleb shooting where two people on benefits are fired into the air and you have to shoot them down. It will reinvigorate British politics and will clear out the Oldies who won't be able to complete the 200m butterfly through a river of shit.

Peace & Love :-) 

Michelle Obama : My Inspiration.

 Michelle Obama made history when she became the first African-American First Lady in the history of the United States. Since then, Mrs. Obama has become a role model in the hearts and minds of those she has inspired including her biggest fan - ME !

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama represents to me a woman who faces and responds to life’s blessings and blows with confidence. I just know that the content of her character is the foundation of who she is as a woman, a mother, a wife, daughter, First Lady of the United States and as a symbol of empowerment for girls and women globally. Plus, it can’t hurt to see her do a total of twenty-five push-ups on youtube when she was on The Ellen Show. This feat alone makes her a rock star in my mind! Would I love to meet her? Duh!! But, you know if I never do, I’m really okay with that because I feel that I know her as a human being, as another woman, who like me is just doing her best to make a difference.

5 Reasons Michelle Obama Continues to Inspire me :

1) She is a high achiever in a male dominated society. Before Barack Obama became president, Mrs. Obama, was a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School. After graduating from Harvard Law School she landed a job at, Sidley Austin, a prestigious Chicago Law firm. Mrs. Obama left the law firm to pursue a career in public service at Public Allies, where she served as the executive director.


 2)  She has been married for 19years. Our ideals of marriage have changed drastically over the years so much that single parenthood and divorce seem to be commonplace. African-Americans, especially, are bombarded with countless images of the so called "single mother" and the "dead beat father". The fact that the Obamas have remained married for 19 years shows us that marriage can be sustained.

3) Mrs. Obama has made it her mission to combat childhood obesity through healthy eating and physical activity. Her national campaign, Let's Move! , has generated an enormous response from parents, educators, and communities. As a result, restaurants and entertainment companies have made some effort to promote healthier choices. Her campaign has also prompted celebrities such as Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Derrick Brooks, and Eddie George, and Deuce McAllister to take action.

4)  Mrs. Obama is certainly not afraid to be herself despite public pressure. We all adore popular figures, and with the help of the media we often create prefect glamorized images of the popular figures we adore. These images are a compelling, yet difficult image to live up to; after all, no one is prefect. So when, popular figures fail to live up to our images, they fall into obscurity or what I would like to call the endless pit of public scrutiny. Although Mrs. Obama isn't free from public scrutiny, she isn't afraid to tap into these images and admit that she isn't perfect, but instead, she's herself.

5) As you can imagine, raising children in the White House is not the easiest task. However, Mrs. Obama is adamant about ensuring a normal life for her children. Parents may not be able to fully relate to her circumstances as the First Lady, but the challenges of parenthood are universal. Parents all want what's best for their children in hopes that they will someday become responsible well-adjusted adults with good morals.
In an effort to keep her girls grounded, Mrs. Obama, has devised a set of parenting tips. According to Black Enterprise.com, among the parenting tips Mrs. Obama shared with online reporters during a conference held at the White House, "Lead by Example" was considered to be the most prominent. She mentioned, "My mother was the traditional stay at home mom who never went to the hairdresser... and the thought of spending a dime on herself was just like, 'Oh, my goodness, why would I want to do that?" The article goes on to say that, "In contrast, the First Lady lets her daughters see her at her best so they too can aspire to new heights."

You go Mrs. Obama! Thanks for the inspiration!

My All Time Favourite Designer - Coco Chanel.

Top three reasons why I love Chanel: 

1) they are design geniuses.
2) They can and will make you beautiful.
3) They can even make Mondays seem like Fridays (see? Clever).

In her inner circle of friends, fashion designer Coco Chanel was known as ‘Mademoiselle’. Over her fifty-odd year career of running her own business, she came to be considered as the ‘Grande Mademoiselle’ of both the fashion industry and high society. Coco Chanel not only revolutionized what women wore, but also the roles they were supposed to play in society.

Through her clothes, Chanel wanted to celebrate the freedom and equality of women. By playing with simple designs and typically ‘masculine’ fabrics, she offered an alternative to the more constraining women’s fashion at the time. By the mid-1920s, corsets were out; a popular ‘Chanel look’ had been adopted, consisting of a wool jersey suit with a full-cut, short skirt, and a straight, collarless jacket.

The designer herself was the embodiment of this new look. By using unconventional models and appealing to fashion magazines, the designer forced the fashion industry to accept her more masculine designs. She was no longer simply about creating stylish hats and designer threads. She had done something bigger she had created a new way of life, and in so doing, laid the foundation for the coming women’s liberation. 

However foolish it was, and however much business sense it didn’t make at the time, Mademoiselle Coco Chanel refused to follow the fashion trends dictated to her by the society in which she lived. Instead, she focused on designs that she would actually want to wear. Her influence and ability to impact new trends was soon unparalleled. A simple trip to Venice, Italy, in which Mademoiselle Coco Chanel wore bell-bottom trousers in order to be able to better climb out of the gondolas would soon start the pants revolution for women.

Everything that this designer did was meant to emphasize an alternative way of living. Much liker her simpler style of dress, her celebrated Chanel No. 5 perfume was unique for its time. Not only was its name basic, but so too was the design of its bottle, with its rectangular lines and cut stopper. She would not have any of the ornate and romantic bottles so popular at the time.

“I did not go into society because I had to design clothes,” she once remarked. “I designed clothes precisely because I did go into society. Because I was the first to live the life of this century.”

It was with this legacy in mind that in 2001, under the direction of Karl Lagerfeld, the House of Chanel introduced Coco Chanel Mademoiselle. Known as the younger sister to the more grown-up fragrances, Coco Chanel Mademoiselle is aimed at the younger generation of independent fashionistas. It is described as, “A light sensual fragrance, a luminous sophisticated fragrance, a modern interpretation!”

Chanel was a woman ahead of her time. This younger fragrance is meant to provide the same sense of empowerment and freedom that the designer tried to infuse throughout her collection in her own time. 


The reason the brand still exists today is that, like many designers nowadays including Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel intellectualised fashion, turning it into something conceptual, something more important than just clothes, which reflected her values of freedom, equality and egocentrism.

I have several Chanel pieces, including a classic quilted handbag, which I've worn with everything from a a simple black fitted dress to jeans and a blazer/jacket, and it goes perfectly from day to evening. That is the beauty of Chanel lies: it has retained enough classicism to appeal to a certain age group, yet become rock 'n' roll enough to appeal to 20 year-olds, too.


Some brands feel so dead; Chanel has always felt alive to me.

Peace & Love :-)