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How Njeri's faith and family anchor her success as CEO

Sunday, February 23, 2025 - 14 min read

Jubilee Health Insurance CEO Njeri Jomo at Serena Hotel in Nairobi on February 12, 2025.

Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation

By Eddy Ashioya

Contributor

Nation Media Group

Some people can hear the music of life and others can’t. Njeri Jomo, the CEO of Jubilee Health Insurance's music is motherhood, and it is a song she has on repeat.

Motherhood and marriage did not diminish her ambitions. In fact, combined, they made it more palatable. “Parenting is the only exam you get to know how you did long after,” she tells BDLife.

Has work always been this central in your life? Yes. I find my work meaningful and I am drawn to such. When I work with people, you as a leader have an opportunity to use your voice to make people’s lives better. I am pushy about my team’s growth. And the ability to say what we mean and we do it—work has to make sense to me. Titles are just that, power is transient—the real impact we have is what we do with those roles we have. I am not any more brilliant than a lot of other people, so why should I be the one sitting there making those decisions? It is a responsibility for that period—you can have a positive impact on the offices you hold. Whoever is faithful with more? Promotions come from the Lord—it come with responsibilities but it also have rights and privileges; there is a fulfilment that comes from knowing you’ve been responsible for the path that you have taken.

This is a gendered question, but most men get fulfilment from their careers, while most women get fulfilment from their families. In your case, work gives you meaning…Ha ha! Let me say that people are centered differently. There are those when the career is working, everything else works; and others when the family is working everything else works. I am centered around family, if it is working then work is meaningful. It is not quite a gender thing, people are different, but some women prefer not to have children and we must be okay with that. Regardless of where you are, there is where you are centered. Family is where I am centered and therefore work thrives as a result of that. Again, choices have consequences: you choose whatever side, and you must be willing to live up to what you have chosen.