Also known as Queen of Mitumba, Jane Wamuyu is the proprietor of Best Mitumba Bales, selling second-hand clothes.
The mother of three has managed to set up three mitumba shops; two in Gikomba Market and one in Buruburu.
Other than being in an abusive married that saw her slip into depression, Wamuyu also engaged in menial jobs in a bid to make ends meet.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
38-year-old Jane Wamuyu is a single mother of three and a businesswoman running Best Mitumba Bales (BMB).
The soft-spoken entrepreneur was born in a family of five in a small village in Mai Mahiu, Naivasha in Nakuru County.
Wamuyu explained that her eldest sister and brother took care of her from the age of twelve following their parents death.
“I can’t remember when I lost my dad but my mother died when I was 12. Life was hard because the only person that I was supposed to live with is my eldest siblings
“My sister was married at the time and they had to decide who I was going to stay with. My sister took my younger brother while I remained with my elder brother,” she said.
Despite the challenges, Wamuyu went through school and enrolled at a college in Thika after completion of her second school education.
Since her siblings were not able to rent a hostel for her, she was forced to live with a woman who was a caretaker and her late mother’s rental houses.
Here, Wamuyu said, she experienced challenges that forced her to impress the woman in order to get food and other basic things.
She also experienced abuse from the woman’s son leading her to depression since she could not share what she was going through with anyone.
Nonetheless, she managed to complete school and later secured an attachment with a shylock and worked from Embu.
However, Wamuyu was caught up in the middle of a life threatening incident when a frustrated client walked into the office wielding a machete.
“That’s how I lost the internship, I could not wait because such incidents could lead to death. I left and moved into my sisters place,” she recalled.
At her sister’s place in Githurai, Wamuyu noted that she started hawking tea and mandazis to businesses around the area.
The job was not sustainable because they would be paid in commission forcing her to quit, and later landed a sales job at Nice and Lovely company.
In the process, a technician who used to service machines at her work place offered to introduce her to his boss.
It was then when Wamuyu landed her firsr permanent job. She worked as the secretary to the director.
While working at the company, she met her husband and as a result, she had to quit her job since they worked in the same company.
She got pregnant and with no job and source of income, she started scouting for a job opportunity again.
Wamuyu managed to get a job at a local salon shortly before she quit and started hawking belts in town, and later second-hand trench coats.
At the same time, her husband had lost his accounting job and they had three children to raise.
While working at a shop In Nairobi CBD, Wamuyu interacted with a fried who wanted to venture into the mitumba business.
They closed the shop and went to Gikomba where, with the help of her in-laws, they were able to buy some stock.
The friend set up a shop in Gikomba and employed Wamuyu to be the shop attendant. While working at the shop, she would engage with people interested in getting into the mitumba business.
Wamuyu made a name for himself on social media and out of the traction that came with her engagements online, she set up Best Mitumba Bales.
A while later, her boss was no longer interested in the mitumba business, forcing her to take over the business.
Wamuyu got a loan from Stanbic Bank which she used to buy the stock her own stock which she sold together with her friend’s remaining stock.
Today, she runs two other stores in Gikomba Market and Buruburu.
In 2021, Wamuyu won the Founder Of the Year Africa Award (FOYA) in a contest with nominees from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, Nigeria and South Africa.
She emerged tops after a rigorous process that involved 30 entrepreneurs from the eight countries, voting by the public and adjudication by an Executive Voting Panel.
