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Read or listen to Caroline Nkoroi Mburng’a’s full oral history. Available in English.

Initially, I wanted to be a nurse. That was my dream. I wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to be a journalist. But in Meru, being a journalist—my parents didn’t know that there’s something like that.

My mother was a teacher. She wanted me to become a teacher. She used to tell me the only college that she can take me to is teaching. I didn’t want teaching. My dad was a clinical officer. He wanted me to be a nurse. In form four, I didn’t get the grades for nursing.

So I stayed at home for a whole year after completing my form four. I didn’t like staying at home.


I wanted to go to school. That’s how I ended up in this college. I stayed at home for a whole year doing nothing.

I was in the upcountry. My friends had gone to Nairobi to school, and I’m back in the village. I wanted something that could get me out of the village. That’s how I ended up in Nairobi. They used to advertise in the newspapers—the colleges. I used to buy the newspaper every day so that I could see the colleges that have been advertised.

I saw this college, The Technical University of Kenya. There were very many courses. I saw that I was qualifying for hospitality management. I applied for it, and I was invited. That’s how I came to school.