She trained as a teacher but now she repairs motorbikes

What you need to know:

  • She became frustrated when she could not secure a well-paying teaching job.
  • Ms Kagendo joined a boda boda repair garage where she got the skills that she boasts of today.
  • She says that she encounters numerous challenges in her work.
  • She is determined to expand the venture in order to accommodate more clients and create more employment for the youth.

When she graduated with a diploma in education in 2013, Purity Kagendo was determined to get a well-paying job as a secondary school teacher, preferably employed by the government.

“I specialised in Kiswahili and Christian Religious Education at Bugema University,” said Ms Kagendo.

Ms Kagendo, 24, started schooling at Amugaa Primary School in Meru County where she was born.

She performed averagely and got admitted to Ntunene Girls High School, still in Meru.

With hard work and taking advice from her teachers, Ms Kagendo scored a mean grade of B- (minus) in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, a grade that would enable her to join any university to pursue a career of choice.

PASSION FOR TEACHING

“I had a passion for teaching,” Kagendo said. She confesses to have admired her teachers especially her Kiswahili teacher. She knew from an early age that she wanted to be a teacher too.

Excited with her good performance, she enrolled at Bugema University, Eldoret branch where she graduated with a diploma in October 2013. Bugema University's main campus is in Uganda.

Just like any other graduate, Ms Kagendo braced herself for employment which she searched for every day.

She was employed at some private institutions which she left due to poor pay.

Her hope was still built on being employed by the government, a hope she still has up to this moment.

She became frustrated when she could not secure a well-paying teaching job.

Lack of income motivated her to think beyond the white collar job she was seeking.

Purity Kagendo tests her customer's motorbike after repairs. PHOTO | DAPHINE BILLIMA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

SUPPLEMENT FAMILY INCOME

It is during this period that she got married. Her husband, however, did not have a stable income as he only did casual jobs.

Ms Kagendo knew she had to find a way to contribute to the family’s income.

Repairing motorcycles is not the kind of job that a graduate, especially a lady, would do.

Ms Kagendo joined a boda boda repair garage where she got the skills that she boasts of today.

She learnt by observing and doing practice on her own.

“I am not afraid of getting dirty,” she says with a smile, “what matters is that at the end of the day I have something to put on the table.”

For more than six months now, Ms Kagendo has been repairing motorbikes and has won hearts of many clients with her good service and cheerful attitude.

ALWAYS SEEKS HER SERVICES

Mr Timothy Mwenda is one client who has sworn to always seek her services.

“She knows how to do her work well,” Mr Mwenda said.

Patrick Kiogora is a boda boda rider in Meru Town and for him too, Kagendo’s garage is the best place to have his motorbike fixed.

“This woman knows how to repair motorbikes better than men,” said Kiogora as he waited for his motorbike to be repaired.

“This kind of work is not easy for a woman. First it is considered a man’s job.

"Getting clients to trust me to repair their motorbikes when I first began was difficult. The society also degrades women who do this kind of work,” Ms Kagendo says.

She says that she encounters numerous challenges in her work.

To conquer them, she had to put in extra effort and rely on word of mouth from clients to sell her business acumen.

Ms Kagendo has employed three men to help her with the work.

“There is plenty of work and I cannot do it all alone,” she says.

She is determined to expand the venture in order to accommodate more clients and create more employment for the youth.

On whether she would still seek formal employment, this is what she said, “I have not lost hope of working as a teacher, it is my passion.”