In 1998, it was very easy for officials working at weighbridge stops to remember Mrs. Francisca Mumbua Peter.
She was the only woman navigating day and night with a long and heavily loaded truck. For her the job was literary big at the age of 23 years.
She basks in the limelight of being the first female to work in a filed littered with males only in Kenya.
“I remember driving a heavily loaded Scania truck from Mombasa to Kinshasa for 3 days,” Mrs. Mumbua recalls, a whooping distance of 2,627 Kilometers.
Now at 40 years old, her shy and reserved nature may not reveal much about her career when one comes across her along the bustling streets of Nairobi.
She is barely tall, her long hair is well kept and combed to one big side, the smooth olive brown skin agrees with her polished nails.
Despite being in the rough industry for more than 15 years, her beauty still is refreshing.
“I have to ensure that I remain a presentable woman as usual,” she says stating that other women in the industry have overlooked on being smart and well dressed.
Mrs. Mumbua is also a mechanic to boot, when her engine breaks down she forgets about her make-up and goes under the chassis.
“Though the vehicle is thoroughly serviced before departure, a drive cannot escape from punctures and other light breakdowns,” she explains.
She knew what she wanted by the age of 12 years, she would occasionally nag and remind her mother before every evening meal of her dream to drive a big vehicle.
It never lived to be a pipe dream.
“After high school I joined National Youth Service where I undertook driving and mechanic for a duration of 3 years and 6 months,” she says.
It was here where she learned how to operate heavy engine vehicles.
At the NYS, as she says, one gets to learn pragmatically how to operate big trucks, buses, caterpillars which are readily available unlike in driving schools.
Her first company was Malde Transporters where she worked for two years before joining Akamba Bus Services in 2000.
The strong, bold and beautiful woman joined International School of Kenya under UNEP in 2008 where she was employed as a head driver for two years.
“I joined Technical University of Kenya in 2011 which is where am still working up to date,” she says.
She now occupies the position of a senior driver at Technical University of Kenya (TUK).
“I decided to hold onto my career and prove to men and women that all genders are capable of any job,” Mrs. Mumbua explains why she ventured into this challenging field.
Before the interview Mrs. Mumbua had just returned from a trip with a click of students. She needs to park the bus in the parking bay before she leaves.
She takes the driver’s seat easily and fastens the safety belt in the high-tech modern bus. She ensures the steering is well positioned.
She ignites the bus, the bus coughs then she engages the required gears and the bus responds well to her instructions. But the bus begs for more fuel by wailing, being a woman she is generous enough with the fuel.
She is on reverse mode, which means she engages all her five senses, and maybe a sixth sense for being a lady. The side mirrors are her basic wants and eventually the bus is in its parking bay.
The job is tormented with a handful of challenges especially for a woman, she complains.
“Women are the most disrespected drivers on the road especially by some of male drivers,” she says giving an incident where a matatu driver once overlapped her and even hauled abuses at her.
“Once some of these male drivers peep into my window and realize that am a woman, they take advantage of them being physically able in fighting,” she laments.
She says they think females are incapable of being competent on the road and sluggish in driving especially on heavy traffic jams.
The long distances for her as a woman are sucking the strength out her body, she says stating that if one isn’t careful, he or she could end up abusing drugs so as to stay active, just like most of the drivers who rely on miraa, smoking and drinking to stay active.
“Being a married person with a family becomes a challenge because sometimes I go for trips that even lasts for weeks,” she says.
She says that she even used to sleep alone on the road when a truck broke down while she was still working in the Transit Goods. She could wait for a rescue even for two days.
Being a lady doesn’t mean accidents have understood her gender, she remembers sadly when her bus overturned in Mombasa due to bad weather conditions in 2013 during an academic trip.
Luckily enough no student was seriously injured or died because she was on a slow speed.
Her manager and supervisor at TUK appreciates her skills.
“I haven’t heard any complain from lectures or students after the trip,” Mr. Moses K. Baragu says.
“After every trip, we do access and evaluate all the drivers, and she always does the best in terms of being careful and following all the traffic rules as compared to her male counterparts,” Mr. Baragu says.
Mr. Baragu says that during the recruitment interview she defeated some men who could not even drive a 76-seater bus out of the parking lot.
Mr. Omar Noor Mohammed, a fourth year engineering student at TUK says that he enjoyed her drive on their way to Mombasa in an academic trip.
“My classmates were very happy including myself to be driven by a lady for such a long distance for the first time in a bus by a lady,” he says.
Mr. Noor says their ride was safe and worth to remember because all my classmates wished for another drive from her.
Because of her consistent good conduct at work saw Mr. Francis Aduol, TUK Vice Chancellor, entrust the new bus to her supervision and care upon being launched.
Mrs. Francisca Mumbua is happy just like any other working woman, the job pays for her kids school fees and the salary is also enough to take care of her well-being and lifestyle.
“I am happy because I have challenged more women to join in this kind of job including men,” she concludes with a quote.
