IT Graduate To Mitumba Vendor: The Moving Story Of Grace Wambere

By Lisa Osiako

“What a man can do, a woman can do better.” These are the words that Grace Wambere Ndung’u strongly believes in towards women’s economic empowerment. To prove this, she pursued a course in information technology, a field highly considered to be dominated by men.

After graduating with her degree from Germany, Grace worked in there for two years before returning to Kenya for a short break. She has never returned since.

“After graduating from university, I worked for some time before I started missing home. The urge to visit Kenya grew so much and when I couldn’t contain it any longer, I sought for a three-week break from my workplace to come home.

“Just a few days after coming back to the country, I had a date with a childhood friend (now my husband) who at that time was finishing his law degree at the University of Nairobi. Although we used to talk while I was still in Germany, we didn’t have plans to take our relationship to the next level, but it happened. I wrote a resignation letter to the company I was working for in Germany and closed my Germany chapter.”

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Her determination to settle down and start a family was undeterred, even with her lack of a job. However, life in Nairobi is tough, and since she couldn’t depend on the husband to solely provide for the family, she decided to look for a job. She approached various companies as a freelance graphic designer. As soon as she started working, she realized that she was expectant with her first child.

Starting mitumba business

It is while shopping for her baby’s clothes she realized how expensive they were. She was advised to go to the Gikomba market, where she would find cheap, classy and quality clothes. She was also warned of how risky and unsafe the place was.

Grace would go to Gikomba every time her baby needed clothes, and eventually, her friends noticed just how unique her baby’s clothes were. They also started enquiring how they could get such outfits.

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She saw this as the opportunity to start a business. She offered to shop for anyone who was interested, as she made a profit. She made orders in no time and second-hand clothes became her full-time job. She then went ahead to open a social media pageto advertise her products.

Her Facebook page now has more than Ksh68,000 members where second-hand clothes sellers link with buyers. She also uses this platform to mentor people who have joined the second-hand clothes business.

“I go to Gikomba very early in the morning, do a selection and go back home. I then wash the clothes and iron them before putting them on display. I also take photos of these clothes and share them within my network.” Washing and ironing the clothes raises their value considerably.

She has since expanded her business to include buying clothes in bulk. She also imports bales from the United States of America and Japan.

Nurturing young people in business

Grace stays true to Michelle Obama’s words, “When you’ve worked hard, and done well and walked through the door of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. No, you reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.”

She now nurtures young people who want to venture into the second-hand clothes business.

She urges young people not to sit down and complain of unemployment but instead take a leap of faith and try to do something.

“Life is about taking risks. It’s better to try and fail than not to try and ‘keep regretting’.”