Nyeri’s tough female electronics fundi breaks glass ceiling

Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer

Source: Business Daily

Ann Wambui is making money in a profession dominated by men. Born in Kiambu County, the 42-year-old mother of one has been operating an electronics repair shop in Nyeri town for 18 years now.

After a long and unsuccessful search for employment as a secretary or accountant, she decided to look for any job. Ms Wambui says she got inspired by her cousin to join the electronics repair business which she was told was paying handsomely.

“My cousin was studying telecommunications engineering in 1992. His skills in repairing radios inspired me to pursue this career,” says Ms Wambui.
She asked her parents to pay for her to study at the Kenya Polytechnic.

Although they agreed, her parents felt the course was a waste of time and money because she was a woman and they had already paid for two courses that never landed her a job.

After completing the certificate course in electronics engineering, she started looking for money to buy tools to start her own repair shop. Lucky enough, says Ms Wambui, she got a job with Unga Limited in Nyeri as a machine operator where she worked for two years before it closed down.

“Before the company closed down, I had saved money to buy the tools that I needed to start my own electronics repair shop,” she says.

The soft-spoken woman set up an electronics repair shop in Nyeri, a field dominated by men. I found her sitting on a wooden seat inside her one-room rented office-cum-workshop busy repairing a broken piano.

Ms Wambui says the business has its challenges like any other. A common challenge she has had to live with is that of men doubting her abilities.
Some men who come to her shop for the first time opt to seek alternatives when they realise she is the one to repair their items.

“They will come with their broken electronic devices after being guided by a sign post I have put at the entrance, but when they find me in the workshop, they ask me, where is the repairman?’’ When I tell them I am the one, some leave their gadgets while others take them to other repairmen, probably a man,” Ms Wambui says.

The mother of one says that many always think she is not capable of doing the job since she is a woman. She says she started getting male clients six months after opening the shop.

To Ms Wambui, women can succeed on any job as long as they have the willpower. Her greatest challenge is when she works on a device which gets damaged and she is left with all the expenses.

“You may be repairing a machine for Sh400, but after it is damaged by a short-circuit for example, you are hit with a Sh2,000 bill or more,” she says.
She also says that there are those who bring the electronic appliances for repair but don’t come to collect them on time.

In such instances, she is forced to keep the devices inside her small workshop until the owner comes for it, but she charges an extra fee.

To serve her growing number of customers effectively, Ms Wambui says she wakes up as early as 5am to prepare her daughter for school before making sure that she is at her workshop by 7am. She acknowledges that at times that the workload is heavy and she is compelled to go to work one hour earlier and leave late.

“This is a tiresome job and since I love it and it earns me and my daughter our daily bread, I have no choice but to persevere with the challenges it comes with.’’

With changes in technology and arrival of new modern electronic appliances in the Kenyan market, the determined mother never hesitates to go to libraries to read a few books occasionally about the new machines.

“Apart from reading books, I familiarise myself by searching and reading more on the Internet. By doing this, I am able to repair many of the modern machines with a lot of ease,” she says.

With the money she gets from her work, she is able to pay her office rent of Sh2,000 per month and that of her house. She is also able to pay school fees and take care of her daughter.

“I love my job since it gives me enough to take care of my daughter and also it is a form of self-employment,” she says.

Ms Wambui is encouraging other women to work in any industry. She says she has mentored a few women in Nyeri town who are currently operating their own businesses without fear.

“The government has set aside women funds which now makes it easy for any woman to get a loan and start any kind of business,” she says.