By Wanja Mbuthia

When we meet Marian Muthui at Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers, Thika, she is thrilled to show us the two electric buses she and her team recently assembled from the ground up.

These are the first electric buses to be assembled in the country.

“The electric buses that ply Nairobi routes were imported, and some touch-up work was done on them. But we are changing that by now assembling the cars right here and cutting down on costs,” she beams.

Marian is the new product introduction (NPI) programme manager at BasiGo Kenya.

Born in the 90s, she spent a bit of her childhood in London, UK, and in Washington, DC, USA. She, however, spent most of her childhood and school life in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

“My childhood as a lastborn with two older sisters was fun, playful, and also academic-focused because my parents wanted me to excel as much as possible. I was a cheeky child, and I remember several times I unscrewed my parents’ TV just to see what was inside,” she recounts with a smile.

A project given to her class by a teacher at Loreto Convent Msongari while she was in Form 3 led her down her mechanical engineering career path.