Small moments can have significant impacts – so is the story of Gachiku Kamau’s journey into the world of architecture. Growing up as the last of eight children she always knew that excellence was expected of her as she had witnessed each of her siblings move into their chosen paths.
As a young pupil at Loreto Convent Valley Road, she had dreams of becoming a nun, but even those dreams were defined by a strong work ethic in her school. This commitment to excellence saw her place within Nairobi’s top scholars during KCPE which won her a place at her dream school – The Kenya High School.
While one dream was cemented, new questions came up. She knew she was good at sciences but couldn’t quite figure out her pathway. During a careers day visit to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), she saw model buildings in the Architecture department and was intrigued before moving onto the engineering department. With her set of subjects, mechanical engineering was her first interest. But her father cautioned her that the world for female engineers was tough socially. Her other option was medicine but having witnessed the solitary life of her older sister who had qualified as a doctor she decided that wasn’t for her. So, architecture it was – largely by a process of elimination and one small glimpse into what architects produce!
Attaining an architecture degree was much harder than Gachiku anticipated. JKUAT’s programme was both rigorous and intense, often requiring many late nights trying to remedy designs that her lecturers had criticised without little direction. It was so frustrating that by the time she graduated she was demoralised enough with the experience that she decided she wasn’t going to practice. Life had other plans though.
After graduation came the job hunt and after a few months she secured a position as a receptionist at an NGO with hopes of breaking into the social development world. Life was not quite living up to her expectations and she just didn’t feel challenged enough. Then an interesting option came her way – an opportunity to work as a landscape architect at a firm in Nairobi. Though it wasn’t her domain, she decided to try it out.
As luck would have it, her older brother who was living in Namibia had been farming out her CV and six firms had expressed interest in her as a graduate architect. It was time to decide between taking the proverbial bird in the bush of the Nairobi job or going against what she had envisioned on graduation to actually try her hand at her field. Gachiku took the risk instead and decided to go and interview in Windhoek. Another small moment with a significant impact.
At the time, few Kenyans were in the country so in essence the quality of her education was an unknown product. Though she was hired soon after arriving in Windhoek, she was often given mundane tasks at her first job – designing windows and doors. Yet the exposure to how architecture was practiced in Namibia was a game changer. She learnt different approaches to project management, documentation and new levels of detail with regards to practice. It was back to midnight oil as she both unlearnt and learnt, and at the same time prepare for her local certification. The industry was still very skewed racially and gender wise and she had to fight for her professional capacity to be accepted. Being young, black, female and foreigner was a tough combination in the white male industry. To the surprise of some of her Namibian colleagues she excelled in her practice exams which opened new opportunities and she soon moved from her first to second job in the industry with her stellar qualifications.
The next job she was hired into was with the Ministry of Works working on government initiatives as the country expanded its built environment footprint. It was a time of deep immersion and huge projects – learning her crafts designing multiple health clinics and other government facilities but also how to navigate the bureaucracy of a foreign government. Yet another element that Gachiku took in her stride. After six years in the country, with a firm understanding of the industry in Namibia, Gachiku finally decided to make the bold move of opening her own practice.
Her first commission was a small renovation job at the national Parliament buildings which thankfully morphed and grew, allowing her to cement her name and worth in the industry. Kamau Architects and Associates was off to a strong start.
Concurrently, the sector was growing and a former professor from JKUAT had been invited to set up an architecture programme at the Namibia University of Science and Technology. Knowing the kind of qualifications she had, he invited her to consider supporting the programme as a guest lecturer. That one small moment turned into a decade long commitment as an adjunct faculty member and examiner.
She was using both the experience and skills she had developed with time in making sure she was infusing the growth of a new generation of architects with constructive criticism. Teaching ended up being a welcome surprise for Gachiku, so much so that she ended up going back to school for a project management certification that would enable her to be a well-rounded lecturer.
She now teaches part time at the University of Namibia in conjunction to running a thriving practice that serves both residential and commercial clients across the country. On reflection she has had to work to navigate and build a professional life in a different culture, yet interestingly the stamp of a Kenyan professional is high currency in this southwest African country – a legacy that has been built by the small Kenyan professional community, and one she works hard to maintain.
In this landscape of stark natural beauty and indescribable desert sunsets this Kenyan has found a way to carve out a niche – through designing buildings, building herself, building her continent and new generations as part of our #KeDiaspora.
