Eight months of unemployment. Five unsuccessful scholarship attempts. Countless moments of doubt. And then, one email changed everything.
“You are not just a pretty face,” she said to me. And she was absolutely right.
On Friday, March 27, 2026, marked a very special day, a true milestone in my journey so far. I am filled with excitement and not quite sure where to begin, but I will start with gratitude.
They say it takes a village, and mine has shown up for me in the most meaningful way.
Below is my YouTube shorts of how my day was at the award ceremony at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
As I stood at the podium in the majestic Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, my mind raced through the journey that had brought me there.
In that moment, as I received my Government of Ireland – International Education Scholarship (GOI-IES) award certificate, it felt so surreal and profoundly rewarding.
To think that out of 5,800 applicants in the 2024/2025 cohort, I was among the 60 awardees is incredible. And to know that I was the ONLY Kenyan for the last two year, that is overwhelmingly mind blowing! What are the odds?
Out of the global cohort, Africa received only 12 slots, awarded to: Botswana, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
In that very moment, the achievement felt bigger than me, it carried not just personal significance but a deep sense of continental pride.
As a fifth born in a family of eight children, from Kenya – that magical country in the East of Africa, home of legendary long-distance runners, I lived an ordinary life.
You go to college, get your degree, look for a job, pay your bills, and the circle repeats for many alike. But nobody prepares you for the ups and downs of life.
So, when one day you wake up and go to the office, only to receive your dismissal letter, it can be very daunting, especially when it is an unfair termination of your employment. Your source of income is cut short. Your body goes into shock; you get a lot of imposter syndromes. Sometimes you can judge yourself harshly.
At that point in time, your professional and personal reputation feels tarnished, and securing your next job seems almost impossible. And so, for eight months, I became part of the 5.4% of unemployed professionals in Kenya.
‘A drowning man will clutch at a straw’, and that’s exactly what I did. A dear friend shared the GOI-IES opportunity with me. Well, after five unsuccessful attempts for the Chevening Awards, he said, “Try GOI-IES.” And so, I did.
When you don’t let your circumstances define you, you give yourself second chance at life.
That’s where Photons Energy Limited, awarded African Solar Company of the Year in 2024, comes into the picture.
As I was waiting for the scholarship outcome, I received a lifeline in Tanzania – beautiful country in the East of Africa, the home of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.
I was given a chance to show that there was more good in me than my unfair dismissal. That I was a competent professional and a reasonable human being.
As a Business Development Manager, I stepped into rooms and met the who’s and who’s in the commercial and industrial space in Tanzania. I even represented the company in Mauritius, pitching to prospective investors.
Let’s just say, 2024 was my best year yet. Because on September 4, 2024, I received my ‘love letter’ from the Government of Ireland.
No number of adjectives can quantitatively describe or qualitatively express my emotions after reading that ‘GOI-IES Scholarship Offer’ email. I’m forever grateful for this lifetime opportunity that has tremendously changed my life.
Crowned by the award ceremony organised by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and Enterprise Ireland, and represented by the Embassy of Kenya in Ireland, what can I say? My heart is full.
It has been a truly fulfilling, full-circle journey to where I am today here in Dublin, Ireland. And oh, I have travelled across this amazing island nation, counties: Cork, Galway, Laois, Kerry, Clare, Kildare, Tipperary, Wicklow, and Meath. The forty shades of green… my word, what a country Ireland is!
So, dear Ireland, thank you for the love – I feel it deeply, and I return it just the same. They say home is where the heart is, and for now, mine rests in the Emerald Isle.
And in this Land of Saints and Scholars, as I come to the end of my MA in Journalism and Digital Communications at Griffith College Dublin, I look ahead with hope.
I hope that my parents are proud of me. And I hope my siblings can feel my love, even from 4,521 miles away.
I hope every aspiring Kenyan student with dreams of moving to Ireland knows their dreams are still valid. Because as the zen-master Eliud Kipchoge has shown us – No Human is Limited.
This ride has shown me that setbacks are not the end of story, they are often the beginning of something greater.
So dare to try again.
Keep going. Keep believing. Because when the time is right, life has a way of answering—with one moment, one opportunity, one email.
To the Government of Kenya, thank you for the presence and support of the Embassy, enabling students like me to pursue further studies and gain global exposure.
To the Government of Ireland, I am truly living the dream of being Irish-educated and globally connected, thank you for investing in my future.
I am proudly Kenyan.
