The adage goes that eggs must be broken before an omelette hits the plate.
For successful women who have made their mark in various careers before the age of 40, breaking those eggs meant defying the rules they were expected to follow.
Many say they were given a template to follow, but they chose instead to live by their own rules.
Lorna Ogolla Omondi
Ms Ogolla is the partnerships lead for Google Research in Africa, spearheading machine learning and AI initiatives while ensuring that African languages are catered for.
The one rule she has broken over and over is not accepting limits.
‘I have always been unafraid of going above and beyond for what I think is right, what I think is optimal, what I think is efficient. Some people call it rogue, but if you only do what you’re told to do, you’ll only achieve what has ever been achieved, and I don’t want to live a life like that,’ she says.
‘I want to be memorable. I want to leave a legacy. I want to leave an impact far greater than anything that’s been done before. So, I go above and beyond. I do what my boss tells me, and I do more. I create more. I think around, I think beyond,’ says Ms Ogolla, a 37-year-old alumna of the Kenya High School who studied engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In her current role, she ensures that data on African languages is among those used to train AI.
Her drive to do more, she says, is what led her to develop an energy procurement algorithm ‘a 1,000 times faster than when I began in big tech’.
‘It’s not because anyone told me to; it’s because I looked into an opportunity. When I see an opportunity, I don’t wait for permission. I go do it and apologise if I [annoy] someone, but yeah, kind of rogue, but only rogue people change the world,’ she says.
Neema Nkatha
Ms Nkatha is the founder of Ohana Family Wear, and her stock-in-trade has been swimwear.
The biggest rule she has had to defy, she says, is the notion that she has to always be demure.
‘As a woman, the biggest rule I’ve had to defy is the idea that the good girl gets rewarded. You know how they say: the good girl never gets the corner office. I realised that if I was always waiting to be invited into the room, always trying to please everyone, always playing it safe, I would never build the business I dreamt of,’ she says.
Her business, sparked in 2018 when she could not find proper swimwear to pack for a trip to Europe, has grown into a regional and global brand, selling in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar and displaying at fashion exhibitions in London, Dubai and other global platforms.
She says her desire to think beyond the box has helped push the brand forward.
‘Building Ohana has required me to speak up, negotiate, take risks countless times and confidently take up space, even when I felt like I had to earn the right to be there. So I’ve learnt that being kind and respectful is important, but so is being bold,’ says the 32-year-old.
‘Sometimes you have to ask for the opportunity, challenge the status quo, and believe in yourself before anybody else does. That’s the rule I chose to defy, and it’s made all the difference,’ she adds.
Lilian Mwai-Ndegwa
Ms Mwai is the Country Director for Kenya at TradeMark Africa, overseeing a project focused on reducing the time and cost of cross-border trade in Africa and beyond.
She has previously worked with KPMG Kenya, One Acre Fund, and Swisscontact.
To reach where she is, the 39-year-old former actuarial science student at the University of Nairobi has had to walk the path less travelled. One of the forces she has had to defy is imposter syndrome, that feeling of insufficiency even when one has all the qualifications.
‘Being able to break the imposter syndrome has been very important. You have to be able to break that barrier in your mind where you think you have to have a certain qualification and to be a certain age [to make a step],’ she says.
Another rule she has had to break is the urge to be the nice person who sweeps problems under the carpet. Whenever there is an issue that needs to be pointed out, she always endeavours to speak up.
‘People feel that [it is improper] when they give feedback, and especially when it’s not positive,’ she says.
In her opinion, you become more useful to an organisation when you challenge a certain idea or mindset.
Shaping anything, she explains, requires one to remove some things, influence people, change mindset and challenge things.
‘Most people fear articulating [a contrary opinion] when everybody is saying yes or a majority is saying yes,’ says Ms Mwai, also a Kenya High School alumna.
A mother of four, Ms Mwai also defied the common notion that a woman can’t prosper in her career while raising children.
‘In my career, there was a period where I was in mid-level management for quite a while because I was having children and I was building my family. There was a point I thought I would never get into leadership because I had spent a huge chunk of time focusing on family. But I believe that is important. There’s a time and point for everything,’ she says.
‘If, as a woman, it requires you to focus on having a family at some point and then you come back to pursue your career, then do that. For me, the barrier I had to break in my mind, and with what society thought, was that family and a career are not on the same level,’ says Ms Mwai.
Bilha Ngaruiya
Ms Ngaruiya, 36, is the Kenyan country manager for ONErpm, a platform that helps artistes access global streaming platforms and receive royalties directly. The firm has helped onboard at least 8,000 artistes.
She hasn’t trodden the beaten path to be here. For one, she didn’t complete her college studies.
‘We believe there is only one path to success: finish college, earn the right degree, choose a career, and stay in your lane. I didn’t finish college, so I didn’t have the traditional credentials many people consider essential,’ she says. ‘Instead, I learnt through apprenticeship: by serving, observing, asking questions, and earning my way into rooms where I could learn from people who had gone before me. My classroom was the music industry itself.’
She reckons that what has propelled her to where she is isn’t a degree but curiosity.
‘Every opportunity became a lesson, every challenge became a teacher, and every transition expanded my perspective. I believe continuous learning matters more than following a prescribed path, and it’s a mindset I still carry today,’ she argues.
Norah Kimathi
Ms Kimathi is the co-founder of Zerobionic, a start-up that develops assistive humanoid robots that translate spoken language into sign language.
The project began in 2021 and has earned her global recognition. Zerobionic, which is backed by the United Nations Development Programme, has expanded into seven countries across Africa, Europe and Australia, deploying more than 78 robotic systems in schools.
To succeed, she says, she had to embrace the power of teamwork.
‘As a woman, I was told I had to be twice as good and work twice as hard to prove myself. And I did. But the real rule I broke was the one that says you have to do it alone. I brought together people who had never been invited to a room like this. Street-involved girls, deaf women, young girls who had been told they did not belong,’ she says.
‘I built a reason for people to believe that they could build too. The future does not belong to the lone genius; it belongs to the community of women and men alike that build together. That is a rule I’m here to break, and I’m inviting everyone who has ever been told they are not enough to break it with me today,’ adds Ms Kimathi.
Jerop Limo
Ms Limo is the executive director at Ambassadors for Youth and Adolescent Reproductive Health Programme, commonly known as AYARHEP.
Living with HIV herself, she has dedicated her career to becoming a mirror for other young people, showing them that a diagnosis need not become the boundary of ambition.
The rule she has had to defy is that life must follow a neat sequence: school first, then work, then impact.
‘I started work and went to school later, which is out of the norm. I’m currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies,’ says the 27-year-old.
Wanjiru Mambo
Ms Mambo, 38, is the founder and chief executive of WedgeHut Foods.
Her work is rooted in agriculture, where she is helping thousands of smallholder farmers escape the grip of middlemen by connecting them directly to markets that demand specific potato varieties.
The rule she chose to break was waiting for the perfect conditions before beginning.
‘[I am for] just starting and not waiting for the perfect moment, choosing to learn as I go,’ she says.
In doing so, Ms Mambo has built a business around practical problem-solving.
Seline Achieng’
Ms Achieng’, 37, is the founder and chief executive of Empowered Women with Disability.
By addressing exclusion, discrimination and the information gaps affecting persons with disabilities and their families, she is challenging long-held misconceptions and helping build a more inclusive society. She is pushing against barriers that keep persons with disabilities out of education, employment, information and leadership, while reminding families and communities that inclusion is not charity but justice.
The rule she refused to accept was that some spaces were not meant for her.
‘I didn’t listen when I was told I can’t and that it’s not my place,’ she says.
Fiona Anyumba
Dr Anyumba, 37, is the unit head for vascular and interventional radiology at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital. Her work reduces pain, shortens recovery and hospital stays, while expanding access to advanced, life-saving care for ordinary Kenyans in the public health system.
The rule she has broken is what she calls the ‘invisible consultant rule’; the idea that specialists should remain behind the scenes, focused only on patients and the technical work.
‘Traditionally, consultants are to focus on their patients and their work; but I am also involved in directly marketing our interventional radiology services to both patients and other doctors, advocacy for patients, negotiating prices to make the services accessible and building international networks which can be leveraged to grow the practice of interventional radiology in my institution and in the country,’ she says.