From a humble computer classes teacher, Mary Muthoni has employed tenacity to rise and now boasts of owning a premier centre of excellence in Embu County, St Petroc Premier School.
Muthoni, a former teacher boasts over 10 years of experience in the education industry. She has had a successful career originating from just a humble background.
In 2016, she was elected as the first-ever female director of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) since its inception in 1965. Muthoni represented the Central Kenya region.
Muthoni attended Ngiriambu primary school and later Kabare Girls High School for her secondary education. She attained her degree in Bachelor of Education from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), and a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) with a major in Management and Marketing from the Univesity of Eastern Africa Baraton.
In an interview with KBC on July 16, 2019, Muthoni revealed that while in college, she was involved in a number of side hustles to help her raise extra cash.
"A business I started was plaiting hair. I used to find the pocket money I am given was too little. I used to go out of my way, plait hair on the side and make Ksh100 per head, and at the end of the week I had Ksh 500," Muthoni recounted.
After college, she was first employed as a teacher. She taught computer classes for a salary of Ksh5,000 per month.
Her first business was a talk show. She worked in Embu, but every Friday, she would travel to Ngara, Nairobi to host the talk show. She charged people at the entrance. However, it later fell off as a result of the obstacles she met on the way.
"It was something that had come to me and I felt I needed to talk to women, young people, and young couples. And they would come to listen to me," Muthoni narrated.
"Unfortunately, because of the distance, I also did not have a mentor, it was in 2004 and it was a whole new idea, so there was nobody to talk to me, nobody to guide me. I didn't even have the finances, the business was not even registered. So the business died," she recounted.
Muthoni had the urge and thrive to do more, and it is after then that she decided to step out and start her own school. She had no source of income, and after one month she had thought to herself, that she made a wrong choice.
Running the school was not an easy task, the registration, the construction, all that required money but she had no source of money. To top that off, she was venturing into a field that would involve people's children.
However, her desire for better education fueled the drive to keep fighting.
"While I was still a teacher, I had this feeling that we were getting half-baked kids, and the parents don't understand. I felt there is a lack of character in the kids who are taken to high school.
"I was feeling if this were my children, I wanted that model kid I would love to be my child. A child who has character, a child who has an attitude for excellence," she asserted.
And out of the nagging she was propelled to found St Petroc Premier School in Runyenjes, Embu county.
It is a private institution for both girls and boys, with a day school system and a boarding facility. Based on the examination results from the recent past, the school is one of the best performers in the region.
Remember Emily Wanjiru, a young girl who in April 2014, stood before president Uhuru Kenyatta, full of confidence and recited a poem that moved everyone?
She was enrolled at St Petroc Premier School by the head of state. An institution miles away from her former school in the Gachoror slums in Juja, Kiambu county. She was accompanied to the school personally by President Kenyatta's private secretary Jomo Gecaga.
Muthoni has been on the receiving end of several awards for her excellence in service to the community, and women in society, both on a regional and national scale.
In March 2017, she was the first Awardee for the Devolution Warrior Award by the Council of Governors in Promoting Women Empowerment in Delivery of Public Services in Kenya. In 2011 she was nominated by the British Council as a Representative of Sub-Saharan Africa for a convention that was held in Corn Wall, London.
Mary Muthoni Johnson is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Women in Business Network, Kenyan chapter.
