Joyce Gumat: Meet the shining star from the north

Former Miss Kenya finalist, Joyce Gumat Baye, is living proof that there is more to Marsabit than meets the eye. Looking at her, you wouldn’t believe what she’s been through. Her story reads like a Hollywood movie. Beating the odds to stand on her own two feet, Joyce is the last woman standing.

From billboards, product covers, TV to print ads, Joyce has had her fair share of modelling gigs, representing brands like Family Bank, Super Loaf, Darling Hair and IFone. On the catwalk, Joyce has modelled for Woolworths, Kiko Romeo, True Worth and several other top designers. And with a new management team behind her, 2015 is looking brighter.

“I have always had a passion for life. I didn’t know what or how, but I knew I was going to do something great. I was determined never to let my kids go through what I went through,” she says.

Gumat means Friday or good luck in her native Gabbra language, I guess she adds a new twist to  the “Thank God it’s Friday” everytime she shows up. 

“My name is Gumat, but people always feel the need to add an “o” so everyone calls me Gumato. I come from a very small and isolated community in Marsabit,” she explains. “You should have seen me when I first came to Nairobi, I have really come from far.”

Bordering Ethiopia to the South, Marsabit is a harsh and unforgiving land. Entrenched in tribal wars, famine, and marginalisation, the headlines from the area speak for themselves. The only thing worse than living there is to be born a girl in a land where culture is law.

It maybe the 21st Century the world over, but in certain pockets of the county, the clock stopped ticking in 1901. Girls as young as seven are married off to 70-year-old men; even educated women with degrees are often married off without their consent. In most cultures there, it’s still taboo for a woman to marry anyone outside her tribe, leave alone become a model or call attention to herself in any way.

“I love my culture, it’s kept me grounded over the years,” Joyce says. “However, we need to tap into the potential that our women have. Our communities will not grow unless we empower our women.”

ODDS AGAINST HER

The odds were stacked up against her from the very beginning, yet hope constantly kept her dream alive.

As a child, she had to trek an hour to get to school, crossing flooded rivers that could sweep her away during the rainy season. In this unforgiving terrain where periodic tribal clashes not only threatened her life, but interrupted her academic pursuits.

“Our village was so remote, we didn’t have cars or buses; we were excited just to see a lorry. In school, we were taught how to duck at the sound of gunshots. Sometimes we would be escorted home, through paths littered with dead bodies.” she recalls.

Her father, who had a modest eduction, was employed by a local NGO and knew the value of a good education. But when Joyce was in Standard 6, he was retrenched and things moved from bad to worse.

She somehow survived primary school, but with no high school prospects, early marriage was the natural progression.

“I passed my KCPE but I didn’t know how I was going to proceed, so I went home to help my mother in the village. If it wasn’t for my parents’ support, I would have been married off a long time ago. Luckily, my dad had made friends with the Americans who ran the NGO, and when they heard he had been retrenched, they offered to pay my school fees.” she offers.

Gumat joined St Mary’s Girls’ High School in Igoji, Meru County was a great improvement for Joyce and she was only the second girl from Marsabit to attend the school, so she stood out like a sore thumb.

Her schoolmates were shocked to see her in  Christian Union meetings because they expected her to be a Muslim. She attained a B plain in KCSE and, with lots of faith, believed that she would somehow proceed with her education.

Another NGO stepped in and offered her a scholarship to pursue a diploma in Nairobi.

“Nairobi was a culture shock. I had never seen so many people in one place,” she says. “I didn’t have bus fare, so  I would walk from the hostel on State House road to NPC Valley Road and back, chatting with some of my colleagues, without a care in the world,” she explains. 

Though her basic needs were taken care of, pocket money was harder to come by. She couldn’t ask her parents for help, so she started washing cars to get some money. Times were hard, and motorist wouldn’t allow the shabby village girl to touch their cars, but she persevered.

In a ruthless city that preys on the young and ignorant, her mother’s advice rang in her head. “My mother had warned me of the temptations poor village girls face. We didn’t have much, but I was brought up to value myself. That’s why no matter how tough things got, there are things I would never do,” she says.

Graduating with a diploma was a very proud moment for Joyce, but she wanted more. In an act of faith, her father put in his last saving to pay for her first semester at KEMU.

Completely unaware where the rest would come from, Joyce began her university education in earnest. With time, well-wishers came through to chip in and she soldiered on with her dream. Having come from a conservative background, Joyce was not outgoing or bold, so she was stunned when schoolmates nominated her for Miss Kemu.

Despite her protests, her friends pushed her, even providing outfits for her to model in. The crowd went wild whenever she hit the catwalk, and for the first time in her life, she was the centre of attraction. She believes she could have won, were it not for the nerves. But even being second runner-up, was more than she had bargained for.

“I began to see that modelling had potential, so in 2010 when Miss Kenya came along, I decided to give it a try,” she says. “But I knew my parents would never allow me to defer a whole semester so that I could walk on a runway parading myself, so I called in some back-up. Auntie Cherono.”

Cherono had long been her confidant, was the perfect woman for the job. Joyce packed her bags and left her industrious aunt to deal with her disapproving parents. As the competition progressed, media appearances made her an instant celebrity in her village.

For the first time in Marsabit, being a girl wasn’t such a bad thing. Come game night, you couldn’t find a seat as villagers flocked the only hotel in the Chalbi Desert to watch their girl in action. She bagged the Miss Beauty With A Purpose for her micro-finance project and life as she knew it was never the same again.

“Miss Kenya opened a whole new world for me, I started getting booked for brand activations, as well as print and TV adverts. I also gained the respect of my community and some invaluable experience in event and project management. The modelling industry in Kenya is messed up and if it wasn’t for my management team at Sound Deluge, I would have given up by now,” she says.

Headlines from Northern Kenya often make for dramatic news, but for those who have lived through it,  it is too close for comfort. So when the 2013 tribal clashes broke out in Moyale, Joyce knew she had to do something to stop the recurrent madness. She bought the Miss Tourism franchise for Marsabit and began an ambitious plan to bring together the warring communities to compete in a beauty pageant.

Thanks to  a witty strategy and pure tenacity, she pulled it off.

“I will never forget the sight of my people dancing together,” she says. “In Moyale, people were killing each other, but in Marsabit, we were dancing and celebrating our different ethnic backgrounds. We turned it into a cultural festival that went beyond the beauty pageant; it really brought us together.”

She continues to give back to her community through various forums especially by educating the community on micro-finance. Though she has achieved so much, she constantly feels as if she has just begun. Good tidings came to Marsabit on the day Gumat was born, she was just a girl so no one thought much of it at the time. But one day, history will look back on Gumat and proclaim it was a good Friday.