Julie Gichuru, the most adored beauty queen in Kenya television.

She is arguably the most powerful woman on our Kenyan screens right now. She airs on Citizen T.V and turns up your screens every Sunday night for her already famous ‘Sunday Live’ Show which has lots of popular segments such as ‘Who Owns Kenya’ and ‘Road Hog’. She has won numerous awards worldwide and was once even placed in the ‘Top 60 Most Influential Women in the World’ list.

She is married to one Anthony Gichuru with whom they have 5 beautiful kids. Your guess is as good as mine, am talking about one Julie Gichuru!
Forgive my long boring talk, I just can’t help it when talking about such people. Anyway, here’s the bit you didn’t know about her. The bit you won’t be seeing on your screens when she presents.


EDUCATION

Her growing up story is not your everyday story.
Julie started off her education at St Christophers School in Nairobi and at the age of eight attended the Green Herald in Bangladesh where her father was posted for military training.
She then returned to Kenya and spent a term at Karen C school, before transferring to Loreto Convent Msongari in Standard Four.
In Form 2, she convinced her parents to let her make the shift from 8-4-4 to GCE, and joined Imani School (boarding) in Thika for Form 3 and 4.
After completing her high school, Julie Gichuru joined USIU, where she only stayed for 2 semesters. She transferred to the UK where she did a one year pre-University Course at Warwick University, before joining the University of Wales, Cardiff for her Law Degree…. Yes, she’s a lawyer.
Once complete she worked for a year to help finance her Masters degree and completed her Masters in Business Administration at the same University.
For a brief period Julie did her pupillage at Hamilton, Harrison & Matthews Advocates in Nairobi before pursuing a different career path in the media.

                                                                             MEDIA

Julie is the current host of Citizen TV’s Sunday Live. She also hosts the Africa Leadership Dialogues.
For over 12 years, she has worked in print, broadcast and digital media. In 2000-2002 she ran a lifestyle magazine called Quest.
She then worked as a news presenter and hosted a talk show at Capital FM. She would then join NTV before settling at Citizen.
In 2008 she conceptualized and started hosting Sunday Live, and it became an instant hit and audience puller.
In 2009 Julie conceptualized and hosted Fist to Five for Change, which facilitated reconciliation and healing for victims and perpetrators of post election violence in Kenya.
She also moderated one of the presidential debates in 2013.

BUSINESS

Mimi.co.ke and her production company Arimus Media Ltd.

When not reading news, Julie has a few businesses to run. She is a director in several companies, among them her online fashion outlet


AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Martin Luther King Salute To Greatness
She is the first African woman to receive this award, for her advocacy

of non-violence following the 2007 election in Kenya.
Aspen Global Leadership Network
Order of Golden Warrior
Awarded by President Kibaki in 2011.
Top 20 Young Power Women in Africa
Julie has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 20 Young Power Women in Africa.

Africa Leadership Initiative
Young Global Leader
Awarded in 2010 by the World Economic Forum.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Program
60 Most Influential African Women in The World
Ambassador - AMREF Stand Up for African Mothers campaign
Ambassador - UNICEF – Breastfeeding

IN HER OWN WORDS:

When I was a little girl I had plenty of fanciful notions and fantastic thoughts, colorful ideas and creative inclinations. I loved to dream and dream big. I saw the world with innocent eyes and I loved what I saw. But I would soon learn that you cannot always expect the best from people, and life isn’t just a bed of roses.

I am the child of a mixed marriage. My father’s family hailed from Kashmir, a beautiful region between India and Pakistan, China and Afghanistan. It features some of the world most picturesque scenes, from fast flowing valley rivers to snow capped mountains, but has been the subject of various border disputes and vicious wars. My mother’s family was from Kiambu. My grandfather was born in Kabete but had to relocate several times, in some instances forcibly. Those were difficult days. They finally settled down in Nairobi. How this Asian boy from Kashmir and African girl from Kiambu met and fell in love is a story for another day.

Growing up in this mixed home I assumed that race was a non-issue. I had a fascinating notion that humans changed colour every year – one year we were black and the next year we were white. So I was rather crestfallen when I realized I wasn’t changing colour as I was supposed to. When I asked my family about it they all had a really good laugh at my expense, and I was left with the upsetting realization that my fun world of colour changing was not to be… Ah well, no big deal… However I was soon going to learn my second hard lesson about colour – people can choose to hate you simply for the skin you are in.

We lived in Dagoretti, Nairobi, along Wanyee Road. After school I loved sneaking out of the house to buy Goody Goodys (toffee heaven) at the kiosk. My parents always warned me against it and insisted I should be accompanied to the shops, but I was a know-it-all, and I loved sneaking off on my own.
On this particular day it was mid afternoon and off I went up our little hill towards the main road. It was a steep 100m stretch to the top of the hill and the road was paved with tall trees and bushes. I was halfway up that stretch when I noticed a group of boys standing at the top. They turned and saw me and then started to shout, “Mzungu! Mzungu!”

I slowed my pace sensing hostility but did not want to seem cowardly so I kept walking, slowly. In a flash, one boy picked up a stone and threw it straight at me. It all happened so fast, the stone hit me square between the eyes. Head pounding and eyes brimming with tears of shock, pain and horror I noticed the other boys bending down to pick stones too. They wanted to stone me, because of my skin!
I ran towards the trees and made my way through the bushes, getting scratched and cut but aware that my struggle through the thick underbrush would get me to the back of my grandparents house. (The Asian boy who married the African girl bought a plot next to his father-in-law and built his home there, another story for another day).
I was worried that the boys might follow me, but this was my territory and at my grandparents I felt safe. I hid on their farm for a short while, I simply couldn’t let either of them see me (there would be hell to pay if they knew what happened). A little later I walked home, just across the road, when I was sure the boys at the top of top hill had gone.

I barely remember that evening… but initially I do recall that I tried to fib that I had fallen. My parents did not buy that story, the bruise was right between my eyes! Later, after some gentle words of comfort and serious coaxing I told the truth. It all came out that some boys in the neighborhood hit me with a stone as they chanted “Mzungu! Mzungu!” Aside from warning me never to go out on my own again my parents did not say much, but it must have hit them both hard. I was just six years old.
A neighborhood discussion was called. Police were involved and they gave some talks to the school children in the area, probably about tolerance. I stopped my visits to the kiosk. My carefree approach to life changed forever. That day remains firmly etched in my mind as the day the world tried to show me that life is colour coded. Indeed, life repeatedly tries to inculcate division, fear, hate, anger… but somehow I still remain locked into my fantastic world of colourful ideas.

Much love,
Julie aka Soaring Eagle…