Meet 29 Yrs Old Owen Kirai, Who Used His Acquired Skills To Help Beat Unemployment

Owen Kirai Njogu always wanted to be an engineer, “Or a pilot. But that is something kids just say when they are asked what they want to be when they grow up,” he says with a smile when I meet him for an interview.

His career direction ended up taking another totally different direction. “I grew up in Kisumu with my mother and uncle and after clearing high school, all I can remember is that I wanted to take a course in Business Administration.”

Why Business Administration?

“I loved the whole idea of a white collar job. You know, having to sit in an office, wearing a suit, isn’t that what many young people dream of?” he poses adding that, “The whole idea looked fancy back then and people respected and still do those with such kind of jobs.”

Determined that business administration was the way to go, he ended up registering for a course but upon returning home and sharing the good news with his uncle, he said no to his nephew’s career endeavors.

“Deep down he knew I wasn’t passionate about the course and he couldn’t let me go through with it. He had also noted that I was passionate about electronics and how my face would light up whenever he would show me how to fix ‘stuff’ around the house. He went back to the same school (Kisumu Polytechnic) and registered me for a Diploma in Information Technology.”

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How his journey began.

“The first time I touched a computer and opened it, I knew that that was what I wanted to do for a living,” he confesses. It’s during his attachment as a Support Desk at KPLC that he met his mentor who ended up showing him about everything he knows today.

“He asked me if I really wanted to learn. He was an IT Support, a guy with a lot of enthusiasm and zeal,” he says adding that, “He built my confidence and was dedicated to teaching me all the loops in IT.” He shares that although it was an unpaid internship, “I would get a Sh5,000 stipend and back then as an intern, this was a lot of money.”

With the final attachment over, he wished to go back and finish off his studies but an all too familiar hardship faced by a lot of Kenyans stood in his way. “There were some financial constraints and with two siblings behind me, my mother could not afford to keep us all in school.

“I let my siblings go on with their studies and I prolonged my internship at KPLC for three more months.”

In search of greener pastures, he moved to Nairobi to live with his relatives. “I recall asking my cousin if he knew of a place where I could get a “kibarua” of some kind instead of staying at home all day.” He ended up getting his first lucky break at a cyber café as a customer care & support.

“Unfortunately it was an unpaid position for about six months and I would only get Sh100 as my to and fro fare. After that they absorbed me and I would earn Sh6820. I cannot forget that figure,” he reminisces with a smile.

It is here that he ended up learning skills that would hem set up his own venture in the future. “It was not the most promising vacancy but I used it as my stepping stone to learning about various internet skills, I learned about networking as I would go on serving people in the cyber,” he adds that these people ended up following him when he decided to start his own business.

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He offers that, “I was good at offering consultancy services to people and I thought my boss would appreciate the fact that his customers had a go-to kind of guy. Little did I know that my expertise was making him a little insecure. The next thing I know I am being told they are giving me 2 weeks off. We will call you, that’s what they told me but deep down I knew I was fired.”

Jobless, he returned to Kisumu to join his mum in egg selling business. “She was not happy that I was back. She would tell me there was a reason why I had gone to school and joining her in the egg business was not one of them.”

Starting the business

In 2011, he returned to Nairobi with the aim of starting his own business. “I had saved about Sh100K and the first thing I did was to create a logo and register the business.

Back then it was a briefcase kind of company where I would carry my laptop with me and repair people’s computers, sell anti-virus, offer KRA Online services,” skills which he had acquired through his attachment at KPLC and through his first job. “It was tough at the beginning but what choice did I have?” he poses

Clients that he had served in the past followed him into his new business. “I also did some printing and creating logos for different companies.”

Today, though, he has a different story to tell. With his business located on Tom Mboya Street, Victoria Court, he has clients such as Stima Hotel, African Man Power Solutions, Phemco Technologies among others. “On a good month I can make Sh150K,” he confesses adding that his business relies on referrals and marketing through social media.

Advice to young people?

“My advice to young people out there is to always have a plan B just in case plan A doesn’t work out. If you get fired for whatever case, it doesn’t get written on your forehead that you got fired, stand up and shake it off,” he says

For frustrated job seekers out there he says “Don’t say there are no enough jobs in Kenya. Get out of your comfort zone and use what you have (talent or skills).

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Don’t fear to reason out or fear to fail. Also, use your internships and entry level jobs as platforms of identifying what you are good at and how you can use it if things don’t go as planned.”