She attended Tindaress Primary (Now Jamhuri) and Kabazi Primary Schools, which became her ticket to a life other than the back-breaking farm work her mother did.
When she graduated from Menengai High School in Nakuru town, she became a boarder at the Kenya Government Secretarial college, Nairobi, where she trained for a year in Pitman’s shorthand, typing, and office procedures. After graduation, the government posted her at the Ministry of Labor, Kenyanization Bureau Dept (now under Immigration Directorate), where she worked at a typing pool for a year and then promoted as secretary to the Assistant Director. During the two years she worked for him, she continued with evening and refresher courses and attained the highest government secretarial level..
For better prospects, she resigned and joined Lonrho Limited, a British multinational, where she worked for the Human Resources Manager. She later joined one of their branch companies—Express Kenya Ltd to work for the Financial Director (or Chief Financial Officer).
With a plan to join the university of Nairobi, she studied through correspondence and evening classes and passed her two-year A-levels (equivalent to community college diploma) the qualification needed to gain admittance to the university.
When Nairobi University turned down her application because they preferred fresh students directly from schools, she joined a private college and continued with her evening studies in administration and marketing, and even attended classes at the Nairobi Polytechnic.
To further her studies, she applied to the United States International University in Parklands, Nairobi. After they accepted her credits, she joined their business administration program.
In 1984, one year before she completed her undergraduate, she resigned from Express Kenya Limited and transferred to U. S International University (Now Alliant University) in Scripps Ranch, San Diego, California. She completed her undergraduate in 1985 and her graduate degree in 1988.
For two and a half years, Ms. Warama worked with California Newspaper Service Bureau in downtown San Diego, where she advertised legal notices, and dealt with newspapers, lawyers and paralegals, and filed documents with the court three to four days a week.
Meanwhile, because of the difficulties she encountered in getting housing, she wanted to understand the real estate market in San Diego. She studied for a California real estate license through Anthony Schools in Chula Vista.
She resigned from the newspaper bureau to join the County of San Diego on Pacific Highway. But after a short stint, she left and joined Realty Edge in National City, California.
Her six-year experience in the United States formed the basis of her first book, Unexpected America, about the challenges immigrants face in America.
Wanjirũ stuck with real estate industry for 25 years, 23 of which she worked as a real estate broker. This led to her second book, Entangled in America—about her life and the challenges she had encountered as a real estate professional.
Wanjirũ gave up her broker’s license in February 2014, a year into her writing career, to devote her time to writing.
She has written five books that include Years of Shame that shows challenges women face from infancy to old age. In the main story, a 14-year-old girl recounts how she underwent female genital mutilation in the backwoods of Kenya, and how the experience devastated her, not only physically but also emotionally and psychologicall, and eventually what she did about it.
The other book, Beyond Conscious Self, is a travel memoir—one emotional story about her relationship with the library that led to Wanjirũ becoming a writer. The second story is about a trip she took to Santorini, the Greek Island, which almost became deadly but for unseen energy that operates within each of us, if we let it.
Her latest book, THE COLONIZED And the Scramble for Africa, Book-1 of THE COLONIZED series, is about untold stories of how peasants, including the author, her family and community, lived on British colonial farms in Kenya. The book has already earned accolades from the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild and The 56th San Diego Local Author Showcase, where the committee chose it as the “The Book of the Month.”
Malve van Hasell, in her Amazon review, states, “This is a book that will stay with you for a long time to come.”
THE COLONIZED and Kenya’s Mau Mau Revolt, Book 2 of THE COLONIZED series will be published in September 2023.
Wanjirũ’s newest publication is a personal essay about the challenges of her spiritual journey.
Besides writing, which takes most of her time, Wanjirũ is a philanthropist at heart who is passionate about education. (She has adopted a high school and a primary school in Kenya). She is a member of the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild, a lifetime member of the Friends of the San Diego Public Library, and of The Rotary Club, among others.
She lives in California and visits her family in Kenya and students of Gȋtũra Primary and Secondary School whenever she can.
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