There is a delightful deception to Catherine Muraga. She isn’t the person who bounds thunderously into a room or holds court. Her presence is soundless in a sort of seismic way.
She speaks softly, in featherlike strokes, soothingly even, as if words are a comforting hand on a conflicted back. But underneath that calmness (if you care enough to ask those who work with her) is an unmovable firmness, a ruthlessness to excellence.
“Don’t be fooled by her soft-spokenness,” someone who prefers to be anonymous warned. “She’s tough as four-inch nails. She doesn’t do half-baking; if she puts on the oven, you are all baking.”
An engineering director and Managing Director at Microsoft’s African Development Centre, she has been baking in many corporate kitchens.
A seasoned IT professional, she’s baked at Kenya Airways, Sidian Bank (Director of IT and operations), and more recently, at Stanbic Bank as Head of Engineering.
This interview happens at Microsoft’s Game Room, featuring a table tennis table and an Xbox console station, toys that Microsoft’s office boys love to commandeer. In that room, she looks like she belongs. Another metaphor, maybe. Who knows?
You were saying earlier that you want to learn how to write. Why?
Yes. So, back in the day, I wanted to learn how to write. I wanted to improve my storytelling, to tell the stories of how technology improves businesses and impacts customers. But how do I tell these stories without it being technical?
But then I moved into leadership and was confronted with another dilemma; do I learn how to write or speak? Because I’m shy, I could never stand in front of people. I would be so nervous that my hands would get sweaty. I couldn’t touch anything with them.
I opted to learn to speak at Toastmasters. I have worked for two banks and had to present a report to the board every quarter. So, I had to learn how to tell the story because heading tech and operations was heavy on content delivery and needed heavy capital investment.
I should join Toastmasters; was that experience interesting?
It was humbling. Most of the folks were younger than me…and were so eloquent. I was like, gosh, where were my parents when other parents were taking their children to schools? [Laughs]
I grew up in Jericho until I was 13, so sheng is my first language. That means that I’d construct words in sheng in my head and then translate them into spoken words. Let’s just say that at Toastmasters things were coming out. [Laughs]
You know, language is such a complex concept because people imagine that if you speak good English, you are intelligent. Intelligence is not a function of language.
You can be intelligent, and you express yourself so well in whatever language. The problem comes when the language of instruction is English.
Do you dream in sheng or English?
[Pause] Both. When I experience intense emotions; happiness and anger, I express myself in sheng. If my dad calls me now, I will speak to him in sheng.
Growing up, our parents would speak to us in Kikuyu, and we would respond in sheng. Our neighbours in Jericho were Luos and Maragoli and when I was young, I would understand both languages.
In fact, my mom would leave us with our neighbour and whatever they ate, we ate. That's how I got to enjoy ugali and omena.
Describe what you remember of your house in Jericho.
It was an old one-bedroom house. There was a double-decker bed in the living room that was partitioned with a curtain. Two children per bed.
I’m the eldest in a family of five children, and I always shared a bed with my sister. The house girl slept in the same space.
I had a good childhood. We weren't told we were loved but we knew we were loved. I remember our mom taking us to visit a relative in Buru Buru and I thought, my God, this is how people live! The young girls in the household slept in their own rooms. I was like, this is crazy! [Laughs]
What fascinated me was that this family had a tin opener! I had never seen one before and didn't know it existed because we opened our tins with a knife.
The reason why this came up was because after lunch they served us pineapples from a tin. Pineapples from a tin! [Sighs] It was just too much! [Laughs]. It was quite an eye-opening experience.
Curiously, it didn’t make me feel like we were deficient, that we lacked, even after seeing how the other side opened their tins and had dessert at a dining table.
Of course, we eventually moved to Ongata Rongai where my dad built a house and then shared a room with my sister but with my one bed.
There, we graduated from storing clothes in a sanduku [box] to a wardrobe. Jericho taught me to be real and to be content. There was a great sense of community and resilience.
What did your parents do?
Dad is a retired hotelier; mom was a teacher.
Did their profession influence you later in life in any way?
Because he worked in housekeeping my dad is quite pedantic. Everything had to be neat and in order. No sloppiness. When we’d hear him coming back home, we’d scurry to make sure the house was not looking shabby.
That tidiness spilt into my life later on in the sense of how I show up and the realisation that it’s the small things that make a difference.
If you aren’t attentive to the small things - money, timekeeping, keeping your word- the big things will suffer. The small things are a reflection of one’s character.
Catherine Muraga, Microsoft Africa Development Centre Managing Director.
Photo credit: File
My commitment to spirituality comes from my mom. She has always been prayerful. She is also soft-spoken but firm. She drove foolishness out of us by pinching us under our arms.
She was a teacher at the school I attended; Dr Kraft Primary School in Maringo and we often walked to school together.
What did you aspire to be as a young girl?
I think it was more of the content I was consuming on TV that had this lasting impression on me. I used to watch those Kenya Airways adverts; I found those cabin crew to be well put together.
Also, from a young age, I always had a curious mind about how things functioned, and I'd always be the one fixing things in the house or undoing things and then putting them back together.
One time my dad travelled to Greece and brought us watches. Mine was red. In school, I used to see boys opening up the back of their watches and then tasting the batteries. I wanted to do that, but the boys would rather die before they let a girl touch their watches.
So, when I got my watch, it was my time to open it up and explore. In high school, I had a good physics teacher, Mr Karanja. I talk about him a lot.
He would break down physics into easy-to-understand concepts. He made me love physics. It helped that he also taught volleyball which I played.
When I completed high school, my dad nudged me to try this computer thing, and I loved it. I was an average student, especially in mathematics but then when I joined the university, something shifted.
I share this story oftentimes because as a parent when your children are not doing well, especially in mathematics, it can be heartbreaking. Mathematics is, after all, a key subject when they're determining the admission to particular courses.
What does sharing a bed with a sister do to your relationship?
For us, it fostered an unbreakable bond. She is the first person I call when I have an emergency in the dead of the night. We don't have to speak every day, but we are connected.
Which women have influenced your path?
I’m in a group of six couples who met in church back in the day in Nairobi Chapel and then moved to Mavuno Church. We’ve met every first Sunday of each month for 16 years now.
Our meetings started because we got our firstborns around the same time, and we were all asking questions about parenting. Then it grew into a space where we keep each other honest.
That group has greatly influenced me in terms of philosophy, finances, and spirituality. There are other ladies, of course, who have influenced me professionally. Lastly, my mother had a great impact on my spirituality.
Is there a big question you are asking yourself in life currently?
Recently I watched Melinda Gates interview with Oprah Winfrey and there was something they talked about that resonates with your question. I loved how she put it: What is life whispering to you?
A couple of things for me. What's my next? Where is the sweet spot of impact? What is contentment? What does money mean? What is true living? Am I being a good parent? I think it's dialling back to self-awareness, spirituality and contentment.
How do you attain contentment?
That’s a good question. [Long pause]
It’s a practice. You arrive at a point where you ask yourself questions like; Am I self-aware? What makes me happy? Why does it make me happy? I’ve gone through cycles of wanting many things, which I’d buy.
That’s how I came to have many handbags. At some point, I asked myself if it was necessary to have that many handbags. I also asked myself other connecting questions about money.
What is the use of money? It’s the quality of quantity, not just in possession but also in social spheres. Engaging in social causes also changed my perspective a lot.
What are you most insecure about now?
Oh, you've just reminded me. Before I joined Microsoft, I was with Stanbic Bank. I thought I knew things. I thought I knew engineering.
When I checked in here, I quickly had a sit-down moment because when you're a company this big, impacting billions of customers across the world, you meet very brilliant minds.
It makes you pause because you then discover what you don’t know much. So, it's been two years of learning, relearning, and unlearning. What it has done to me is teach me to ask good questions and also be humble. I have to do a lot of reading.
