Melvine Akoth is the founder of Mell Safaris Tours and Travel.
The entrepreneur founded her company while a student at Chuka University where she was pursuing a course in journalism.
Akoth enjoyed traveling while growing up and she never knew that she would run a successful company and bag several awards.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
Akoth was born and bred in Kisumu County where she also attended her primary and secondary school education.
She attended St Mary’s Lwak High School, and later joined Chuka University where she says her passion for traveling grew.
“I started doing travel and tours in campus when I saw there was market but no one was doing that job. I started creating packages for my fellow students who also wanted to explore,” she said.
Akoth cited a ready client base as the motivation behind her decision to found the company while still in school.
“I knew people who wanted to explore but they didn’t have a planner, so I decided to be the planner,” she said.
In an interview with KTN, Akoth explained that she developed an interest in traveling while she was a little kid.
She was so much into it that she would join music and drama clubs in school so as to travel to different places.
“I’ve really loved exploring and travelled to different parts of the country though I never visualized myself running a tours company but overtime it has grown as a passion,” she said.
After completing university, Akoth went a step further by joining the relevant communities and looking for a mentor to help her build her brand.
When she got everything right, she organized a three-day trip to Samburu where he was joined by friends and fellow classmates.
“It was a very nice experience and from that I realized that this is something that I could do. After the trip I now decided to organize more packages,” Akoth said.
After graduating from campus, she expanded her market and included packages for honeymooners and solo vacations among others.
“I’ve been able to expand my market and I’ve had many inbound and outbound tours. One of our major outbound trip was to Zanzibar,” she said.
Mell Safaris offer travel packages; inbound and outbound, hotel bookings, flight ticketing, bush safaris, beach vacations and corporate team building
In November 2022, Akoth won in the Tourism (Tour) and Cultural category at the Top 30 Under 30 CEO awards at the Annual Summit and Awards held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
“The award paved way for many opportunities for me in the industry. I got recognition and more clients who wanted to travel with the company,” she stated.
She advised the youth to put in the hard work and remain focused on their business noting that it will eventually pay off.
”Get the right people not necessarily in the same field that will guide you in your entrepreneurial journey,” Akoth said.
