Joyce Nyawira Karimi was 17 years old when she left a lasting impression on President Uhuru Kenyatta at the official opening of the M-PESA Foundation Academy in 2018.
She had been given two minutes to address the President and guests at the academy located near Thika but ended up giving a remarkable seven-minute speech.
“I knew being given that platform is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I did the seven-minute speech because nobody could remove me from the dais as I was already there. I told the President that I’d become the Chief Justice of Kenya in 2036,” she recalls.
At the launch, in concluding his speech, President Kenyatta asked whether anyone had a question.
You don’t often have someone willing to ask the President a question, so there was pin-drop silence as he looked around for a raised hand. From the podium, he turned to Joyce, sitting behind him, and asked, “Madam Chief Justice, do you have a question for me now?”
Her father, one of the people she looks up to, always advised her to be prepared in all situations. “Kaa kama jeshi (You should be like the military),” he’d tell her, and she rose to the call.
“I didn’t have a question, but I said I did,” she says. By the time she reached the podium, she had one. “I asked him about his legacy,” Joyce recalls.
Joyce has since left the M-PESA Foundation Academy and she has focused her studies and extra-curricular work into becoming a voice to speak for those who don’t get such chances.
She would get another chance to interact with the President while still at the school, this time at State House at an event for the President’s Award, the self-development programme that seeks to impart positive life skills and ethics in the youth.
“He remembered me, and we had a hearty conversation,” says Joyce, who is now a third-year Bachelor of Laws student at Strathmore University in Nairobi.
Joyce was set on her current path early on at the academy, which was designed to be a world-class institution and to produce individuals who can make positive and lasting contributions to society.
She was among the alumni who gathered at the institution in mid-July for the M-PESA Foundation Academy Leadership Conference, a three-day event for more than 200 scholars who have graduated from the school.
Themed “Sustainable leadership for the future”, the event featured guest speakers to mentor, motivate and challenge the academy’s alumni on how to achieve and practice transformational leadership.
With her challenge to the President in 2018, Joyce caught the attention of someone who worked at the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
A few weeks later, the organisation approached her to become a UNICEF ambassador, a role she took up between 2018 and 2019. She immersed herself in discussions and debates on topics such as teenage pregnancies affecting the Kenyan youth.
“They needed a young person who is vocal and doing something,” she says As the ambassador, she had a wider reach. It unlocked doors that allowed her to articulate issues, such as Kenya’s Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). The organisation heard her views as she was not speaking for herself but for a whole generation.
Joyce takes pride in her relatively humble beginnings. Before joining the academy, she was a pupil at Murang’a College Primary School in Makuyu. “I didn’t know what the world had to offer at that time,” she says.
“I am proud because that gave me my kickstart in life. So far, I have experienced the world of the have-nots and the haves. I know how it feels when you don’t have and when you do,” she says.
The self-assured student is grateful for her father’s constant presence in her life. Being on her toes has driven her to greater heights. “It has taught me to keep dreaming, even when the dream is big, and it scares me.”
But her journey has had hiccups, too. Her speech led to fame from exposure in local dailies and news, and her friends viewed her differently. She began to feel like she no longer belonged in their circles. “I had to learn to stand on my own. At that time, my faith grew strong, and my mother helped me, too. In the end, I cracked it, and I’m okay.” As a young adult, she also faces financial constraints and mental pressures, but she has learned to be flexible – roll with the punches.
Joyce also gives back to the community. She is the Director of Community Service at the Rotary Club, Nairobi, where they plan to dig a borehole in Isiolo County. “This allows me to interact with the community directly and personally,” she says.
The M-PESA Foundation Academy opened her eyes to responsible leadership. From her experience, she has realised that a good leader has a vision and a workable mission and is someone who seeks to affect his generation and those to come.
“Future generations should find a more sustainable planet to live on,” she says.
In her eyes, one of the leaders who carried this vision is the late Bob Collymore, Safaricom’s CEO and a co-founder of the M-PESA Foundation Academy. “I admire him because when he interacted with the students, you would forget he’s a CEO making major decisions. He was down to earth, and he listened. I want to be like him, but I would also like to create a niche that is mine, even bigger and better than his.”
Joyce says she wants to be remembered for her deeds and believes she is on the way to accomplishing the dream she spoke of that day in 2018. “I want to leave a sustainable legacy to the current and future generations. And this is through the justice system,” she says.
You can read more stories about the M-PESA Foundation Academy here.
