Meet publisher who’s comfortable in her natural skin

CAROLE MANDI, Carole Mandi Media

Age: 42

BEd, Literature and Lingustics, Moi University

1995-2000, Sub-editor, Sunday Nation

2002-2004: Editor, Eve Magazine

2004-2009: Editor, True Love

It’s easy to look at Carole Mandi and ask yourself, “Why does she look so together?”

Well, she does because she works at looking together, but she is also quick to stress that she is a simple lady even though she realises that that is hard to believe.

“ I know it doesn’t come across, but I’m really very simple,” she says, “ I’m the ‘traditional’ woman who morphs into her traditional role when I get home, which means I will serve my husband food and do all that which role entails.”

But her traditional role, she is quick to point out, shouldn’t be taken in its literal form.

As publisher and owner of True Love and Drum magazines, a columnist with the Saturday and Sunday Nation, Carole finds herself in the eye of the media spotlight, which she says isn’t as pressuring now as it was before.

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Your mother was Tanzanian, but your father is Luhya. What Luhya trait did you pick?

(Laughs) Tea! I can’t get by without tea. Then there is Luhya music – Isikhuti. But I think the most visible trait I picked is the Luhya diplomacy and hospitality. I love hosting people. And oh! I’m a great AFC Leopards fan, I might not go for their matches, but I feel them.

You have this image out there that you’re very prim and proper. Let’s humanise you, Carole. What have you done lately that was out of that character?

I could mention a few, but even those things would still look tame to the average person.

So what is your one trait that needs development?

I have many. I’m too diplomatic, always looking for ways to say things the right way when all I need to say it as it is.

I run a business now and I realise I need to shoot straight and let the chips fall.

I admire people who don’t mince their words. Also, my interpersonal relationships, which come across as clinical, need some working on.

Surely, you drink something, don’t you?