Harriet Ng’ok is the founder and CEO of Harriet’s Botanicals. This is a company that produces health and wellness botanicals sourced from the Rift Valley region. Prior to founding the company, she worked for more than a decade in the financial industry.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
Education
She left Kenya in 1995 and went to the London School of Economics. She graduated with an LLB law specializing in commercial law. Later, she pursued an LLM Law- International Banking and Finance.
Career
The entrepreneur went on to have a successful corporate career working with the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and the UK Financial Services Authority.
Apart from working as an international consultant, she has also worked as an East Africa partner at Dwyka projects and Equinox Global Consultant.
Pain and starting Harriet’s Botanicals
In a 2021 interview, she revealed that she was dealing with extreme menstrual pains which interfered with her work.
Despite visiting doctors, pharmacists, doing yoga, massages and taking pain killers, the pain persisted.
After coming to Kenya, she was introduced to indigenous medicine. Her uncle who was a herbalist sent her medicine from Webuye.
While it did not completely ease the pain, it reduced it by a small margin. She tried other medicine from different communities, such as, Marakwet, Keiyo and Kipsigis.
During her father’s funeral a lady introduced her to their Kipsigis medicine.
After taking it, she experienced painless menstruations for the first time.
Harriet Ng’ok then recommended it to a friend who was set to undergo a hysterectomy.
The friend too experienced painless periods. Soon, a lot of people in their circles were taking the herbs and it was working. Then, women began to enquire about herbs that could increase their men’s libido.
This interest in herbal medicine inspired her to start Harriet’s Botanicals.