“I want to be part of the energy story in Kenya,”
says Gina Din-Kariuki, a Kenyan entrepreneur and
public relations (PR) guru. Sixteen years ago she
quit her job as head of corporate affairs at
Barclays Bank Kenya and, having built a name for
herself, plunged into business to create Gina Din
Corporate Communications (GDCC).
The firm is one of Kenya’s most successful PR firms
and has handled large corporate clients in various
sectors, including telecommunications, banking ,
hospitality and air travel.
GDCC handled the Safaricom account when the
telecom operator launched in Kenya and went on to
represent the firm for many years. Din-Kariuki told
How we made it in Africa that she watched first
hand as the industry evolved and became one of
Kenya’s success stories. With the discovery of oil and
gas in the East African country, Din-Kariuki wants to
do more than just watch.
“It was interesting… but I didn’t get into the whole
telecommunications space as a businesswoman. I
watched it grow. So this time energy came in and I
thought: ‘This is exciting but I don’t want to sit and
watch. I want to be in the game.’”
Din-Kariuki is now the local shareholder of CAMAC
Energy, a US-based New York Stock Exchange-listed
company involved in the exploration, development
and production of oil and gas .
“We are going to be exploring for oil in this region.
So one of these days you will see me with a hard
hat.”
Her entry into the energy sector makes Din-Kariuki
one of very few women in Africa to actively invest in
the energy sector.
“Maybe I will bring a little bit of glamour to the oil
industry,” she says with a chuckle.
But beyond bringing glamour, Din-Kariuki hopes to
influence policies that will see Kenyans benefit from
the country’s resources. This is also a serious long-
term investment for her.
“I always say to God, ‘you must have sent this to me
to make sure that I learn how to be patient’ because
I am not patient. PR is lots of deadline and also you
get instant results. What I have learnt in this energy
industry for a year and a half [is that] it’s teaching
me patience. It really is. It’s so slow. It’s a very
long-term investment.”
Oil exploration is also an uncertain investment. “Life
is a gamble. I am very excited by the prospects of
energy in this country. I am very encouraged by the
way the government is handling the whole process.
And you know what? I don’t want to sit on the
sidelines. You are either watching the game or
playing the game. I want to play it.”
African entrepreneurs
Din-Kariuki describes herself as resilient and strong.
She is not scared of taking risks; neither does she
jump ship when the going gets tough. In fact, she
believes difficult times come just before the “next
leap of success”.
“Every time I have wanted to quit and there have
been a few [times] it’s at that point that [I was at]
the very verge of greatness… that moment after is
when it’s your next leap of success. It’s really
interesting,” she says. “What I would say to people
starting their businesses now is hang in there. The
journey of an entrepreneur is never straight. There
are… potholes on the way but we have to stay in
there for the long haul.”
She says although doing business in Africa is
challenging with the continent facing “infrastructural
challenges” and “pockets of instability”, she admires
the resilience of African entrepreneurs. These
entrepreneurs, she says, will bring the “Africa Rising”
narrative to fruition.
“I think there is something about entrepreneurs in
Africa. We are the ones who are going to make Africa
rise. If you look at entrepreneurs in Africa and you
look at entrepreneurs elsewhere in the world, the
ones in Africa have gone through so much to get
them where they are.
“Many started out in very humble circumstances,
some haven’t been to school… so when you compare
that to a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs, I kind of tend to
think, ‘wow to the African entrepreneur’, because
they have gone through so much more. It’s this
spirit to succeed; it’s the sprit to break the cycle.
It’s a spirit to make sure that the generations below
us don’t have to go through what we went through.
Because the beginnings have been so difficult that
we have no choice; if we don’t do it then who? If not
now, when?”
Din-Kariuki would like to see more people, especially
the African youth, go into entrepreneurship.
“There are not going to be many jobs for everybody.
We need to create these jobs. I think we have no
choice but to encourage youth entrepreneurship and
a lot of the work that I am doing with the youth
right now is a long those lines.”
But, she warns, entrepreneurship is not suited to
everyone.
“I think it’s not for the faint hearted; you have to be
internally very strong because you take a lot of hits
along the way, a lot of failure and… some people just
can’t handle failure. Some people are too sensitive
to be entrepreneurs. You have to be very thick
skinned to be an entrepreneur.
Every single day I
wake up… there is a new challenge. There will never
be a point when there is not going to be a challenge
and I am [always] ready for that,” she says.
GDCC’s future business
Even as she casts her sights on Kenya’s oil and gas
industry, Din-Kariuki is still involved in her PR
business.
GDCC is currently rebranding and is expected to
launch across Africa to meet what she describes as a
“need for an African PR brand”.
“We need to be ready to serve our clients for the
next 16 [years] and on, but with new tools. What we
are coming up with… is a product that is going to
serve Africa, not just Kenya,” she says of the
rebranding process.
Over the last 16 years, Kenya’s PR market has
evolved, with more local and international firms
entering the market. However, this is not a cause for
worry for the GDCC boss.
“It’s exciting. The pressure is on to be the very best
in what we do. Yes, there is a lot more competition
but I think that is quite exciting.
The market is
much bigger. There is a whole SME market now that
is looking at PR. That was never there before. So we
are not really all fighting over the same clients
because the base is much wider.”
Din-Kariuki describes PR as one of her passions.
“I call myself a ‘creative disruptor’. I am never happy
with the status quo. I always want to take the
brands that I handle from mediocrity to
magnificence. I get so much pleasure and joy out of
that.”
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