NAIROBI- It is not a common story when one comes back home after studying or working abroad and still manages to succeed. But Eve Rotich, a Kenyan economist who made a name for herself in USA, returned to become even a much better person back home. Daring Abroad presenter Michael Tsimanji visited Eve Rotich in her office in Hulingharm, Nairobi County, to get her full story.
As is known, not every success comes easy. Eve Rotich lost her father at the age of 6 and was brought up by a single mother in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County. She attended Green Park Primary then later joined Moi Girls’ Eldoret although with a lot of financial challenges.
“Going through high school was the toughest part… I was old enough to understand shortage, but young enough to just not care.”
Eventually, her hard work paid off. She emerged the best girl in her district when she sat for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education and thus joined the Equity African Leadership Program in 2007. Also, her academic brilliance also attracted the attention of the Kenya Scholar Athlete Project, a program that is interested in talented yet underprivileged children in Kenya. This program was the key to Eve’s journey abroad.
Eve was admitted to Middlebury University in Vermont, USA in 2008 to study Economics and Psychology. Because of the friendly environment she received from other members of KENSAP when she arrived, she managed to settle in quite easily. She graduated in 2013 and immediately started working as a project manager in Vermont. She later relocated to New York. While working in New York she received a call from home that she was urgently needed back home.
“It was nerve raking a little bit. It was a point I wondered, I’m needed home, what am I going to do there?”
In 2016, she relocated back to Kenya without any idea as to what she would do with her life thereafter. She reached out to James Mwangi, Equity Bank CEO, who immediately agreed to give her a helping hand. That way, she became the project manager of Equity Group. Later on, she got a job as a marketer at Kenol Kobil. Her experience abroad has had a great impact on her colleagues who confirm that she is a hard worker.
“She is very persistent in achieving what she wants to achieve.”
It is because of her experience abroad that she is what she is today!
Lavender Amunga contributed to this article.