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Julius Mbura: The blind man who climbed Mt Kilimanjaro
Julius Mbura, alias Julio, a lawyer by profession who is clinically blind and a famous car reviewer on social media, during an interview in Nairobi on January 8, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
If you met him for the first time, you would find it hard to believe that he is blind. He will try to break the ice by making light of the moment with a resident joke.
“Good to see you!” Then he will quickly retort, as if to correct himself amid giggles, that he lacks the sense of sight, and will follow that statement with its antithesis: “Good not to see you.” He has alchemised his reality to make the best out of it.
“I was born sighted. I lost my sight the first time when I was 10. I've lost sight twice. I have a medical condition called retinitis pigmentosa. When it happened the first time, my body fought back, and I regained sight, despite it being low vision. Just before my bar exams in 2019, I lost sight again,” says Julius.
Retinitis pigmentosa is a group of rare eye diseases that affect the retina -- the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye. The condition causes cells in the retina to slowly break down over time, leading to vision loss.
Losing the last vestige of his sight delayed his admission to the bar as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
“I had terrible migraines at the time I was sitting for my bar exams. So bad was the pain that I had to stop the exams with just one out of the nine papers to go. Working my way up to the exams had been made possible by using assistive technology,” he says.
Not one to be put down by a circumstance, he took his new reality with a swing. “Being clinically blind for about six years now has been an eye-opener—no pun intended,” he says.
He has developed autonomy and independence that he did not know was achievable in his blindness.
Julius lives alone, he cleans after himself and does just about anything sighted people can do. If you are around him long enough, you will see him hail an online taxi to the deeps of Nairobi’s downtown to run errands—alone. It has also made him aware of his limitations and found ways to live beyond them.
“I wanted to pursue theatre and film while growing up, but with my sight situation, that became impossible. However, most of my work involves documenting things and being in front of the camera. I could say this is not very far from what I wanted,” he says.
In 2020, he started reviewing cars under the alter ego Julio Supercharge. Growing up, he was fascinated by cars, their engineering, and what propelled them to move. Therefore, it was natural for him to teeter towards reviewing them both as a hobby and a possible career.
What set him apart from other car reviewers—and maybe this is what gave him instant fame with his audience, is that he reviewed cars with the sense of touch, what he calls a blind car review.
His fast choice of a professional name would have been Super Car Blindy. That sounded very similar to the celebrity car reviewer, Super Car Blondy. He dropped it to retain his originality and authenticity. You’d have to watch him do it for this to make sense. Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection best explains how he does this.
“When you lose one sense, the other four become heightened. For me, it was the sense of touch and hearing,” he offers.
“By feeling the curves on the body of a car, I can tell the model, the series, and the car’s features.”
Julius Mbura at a showroom in Nairobi where he reviews cars.
Photo credit: Pool
At times, he can even tell a vehicle’s year of manufacture by just touching it. He is a visual thinker. He thinks in terms of images—what he imagines things look like. That is translated into his sense of touch and communicated verbally.
This autonomy, he explains, is largely because of the access his white cane affords him. It is a necessary accessory that not many blind people have. For this reason, he ran a drive in 2023 to raise funds to acquire white canes for various schools for the blind.
“At the end of the drive, we had raised enough money to get 600 white canes that we distributed to various schools, including Thika School for The Blind, St Lucy School for The Blind, Kilimani Integrated School, and Likoni School for The Blind. I cherish the autonomy and independence my white cane has given me. I can move around independently with little to no help. The white cane gift I would want to give those like me who can’t afford it,” he says.
More people needed the white cane, as he would find out in the drive.
“To concretise this dream, I had to come up with new ways of doing it. I had approached a friend in 2021 to form my management team for different projects under my brand. I always believed I could do more. Looking at my skill set, my abilities went beyond car reviews, and with the white cane drive in the picture, I wanted to do something that would boost my efforts to raise funds for more white canes,” he says.
In 2023, the idea of climbing mountains to raise funds came to Julius and his management. They researched it and came up with a campaign: Heights Unseen.
“The idea we had was to showcase a journey so that whenever people contributed, they’d see the limits I was overcoming and the promise of overcoming limits that this white cane held for blind people.”
They gathered their team to accompany him to different peaks in the country while documenting his story.
“We started with Ngong Hills, which is an easy terrain. For this, I did not need much assistance, and I used my normal white cane. Our next attempt was Mt Longonot, which is tougher than Ngong Hills. In his third climb, Aberdare Range, he sought the services of a professional hiker to guide him through the process as it was becoming more technical," he says.
Julius Mbura, a blind hiker on Mt Longonot in Kenya in August 2024.
Photo credit: Pool
How he does it
"For it to be successful, there needs to be proper communication. A left is a left. A right is a right. I am very keen, if I am told there's a rock in the next two steps, I will prepare for that. While hiking, I hold on to Marsha’s—my guide—shoulders. With her, we’ve created a system where she doesn't talk much. Additionally, I am sensitive to any movement she makes. I can predict when she is about to turn or make a certain move, and I will ready my body for that. Over time, it becomes a synchrony,” he says.
When BDLife caught up with him, he was coming back to Kenya from Mt Kilimanjaro. He crossed over to 2025 at the peak.
“Once we summited Mt Satima, we got the idea to get to the roof of Africa. We thought it prudent to summit the highest peak in Kenya before trying the highest peak in the continent,” he says.
As the hikes became more technical and the terrains less friendly, he switched his cane to an all-terrain cane that is hardy and suited for such activities.
Most challenging hike
“I cried twice, I threw up, fell on a rock once, and fainted. I thought of quitting several times and even composed a statement I’d issue to my followers and supporters on social media if I came back home without summiting. Mt Kilimanjaro, like all the mountains I have been to, does not discriminate. It breaks you. At some point, it stopped being about the project, and it became about me, what did I want? My simple answer to that question was that I wanted to summit. When I came to after fainting, I am told I appeared as though I had resurrected. Something had died in me, and in its place, energy and the zeal to finish became more pronounced,” he says.
Julius Mbura, a 33-year-old blind hiker on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in December 2024.
Photo credit: Pool
The team made it to the top, and their dream of ending 2024 on a high note was accomplished.
His biggest lesson is on preparation. “You need to dig deep into who you are and be ready to confront the inner self. Understand your reasons and own them. Know your limits and evaluate your chances of overcoming them,” he says.
His biggest support system is his family. “At first, they were worried, as expected, but they got around it after seeing the success I had in the beginning. They are a solid support system that prays for me and sends me to the mountains with all the luck they can afford,” he says.