About Me

I am a mother/writer/poet/storyteller who started off writing legal briefs at a London law firm back in the year 2000. In 2001, I quit and moved back home. In Kenya, I joined the Kenya School of Law, passed the bar in 2002 and was sworn in as an advocate of the High Court in 2004. In the interim, I worked at an NGO raising awareness around refugee rights.

In January 2005, I resigned and became a freelance writer, with no acquired skill or experience whatsoever, unless you counted my quarterly contributions to Refugee Insights, a fascinatingly drab publication on asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and international refugee law.

After months spent quite literally on the streets of Nairobi, casting my shadow across every editor’s door, I finally got a gig writing for Drum magazine. Soon after, I was commissioned to contribute to the Daily Nation’s Saturday Magazine. Later that year, I was employed as a staff writer for Drum at East Africa Magazines (EAM). In 2009, I was appointed the editor of Move! Magazine, a new title that was launched to target young professional women.

EAM folded in 2010. Out of employment, I formed a custom publishing company (in partnership with three former colleagues) and for about a year, produced trade magazines for different organisations.

In 2011, a feature’s editor position opened up at the Nation Media Group’s subsidiary in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I jumped at the opportunity to gain some East African experience. In Dar, I (wo)manned the features desk at the English-language Citizen newspaper for two years.

In 2013, I came home and joined The Standard Group as a Revise Editor for the daily.

In 2014, I gave birth to the most beautiful girl in the world and my life changed forever. She is my fountain of youth. My spring of inspiration.

To summarise, my name is Julie and I’m a writer. Welcome to my world of words.