“Home is best”: Kenyan woman quits lucrative Kuwait job to start own business
This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.
- Sandra Adhiambo spent seven years working across Dubai and Kuwait, training elite clients including a national bank CEO, before deciding to return to Kenya
- A mistaken mobile transfer of KSh 33,000 from her aunt set off Sandra's entire journey abroad, funding her first Dubai visa application
- Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, Sandra opened up about workplace discrimination at a Kuwait gym and the mental health toll of living far from family while supporting relatives back home
Sandra Adhiambo, a personal trainer from Kenya, has returned home after seven years working across Dubai and Kuwait, with plans to build her own fitness brand in a market she believes is poised for growth.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with TUKO.co.ke, Sandra said her journey abroad began almost by accident. In 2019, her aunt mistakenly sent her KSh 33,000 instead of KSh 3,000 as fare for a family visit.
When Sandra flagged the error, her aunt told her to keep the money and use it to apply for a Dubai visa, reasoning that Sandra's beauty therapy diploma was going to waste while she sat unemployed in Nairobi. The visa came through in under six days.
From bed spaces to job interviews on foot
Arriving in Dubai with her cousin, Sandra was placed in shared accommodation where residents own nothing more than a single bed in a room divided among many people.
She nicknamed the upper bunks "Burj Khalifa." Finding work proved harder than expected. Each morning, she and her cousin would apply online, attend walk-in interviews and drop CVs at any company that would take them. She carried separate CVs for security, cleaning, beauty and hospitality roles and went for interviews in all of them.
The young woman failed a security job interview after being unable to complete 20 push-ups, having just come off a 19-day church fast before arriving in February.
A housekeeping trial at a Dubai hotel ended when she could not lift a heavy duvet. Rather than give up, she renewed her visa, changed her approach and began targeting company head offices directly.
That strategy eventually landed her a customer service role at Magic Planet, an indoor amusement park at the Mall of the Emirates, after she tracked down the HR department's email and sent her CV directly.
Kuwait, elite clients and a difficult exit
After three years at Magic Planet, Sandra enrolled with the Fitness First Academy, completed her personal trainer certification in late 2022 and updated her LinkedIn profile.
Within weeks, a recruiter messaged her offering a position at a new gym in Kuwait. She arrived in October 2023, and even before the gym officially opened in May 2024, she was already being paid while helping set up equipment and developing training programmes. The gym catered to Kuwait's elite, including members of royal families.
The experience turned sour when her South African manager was dismissed and replaced by someone Sandra described as hostile towards the gym's Black employees.
She recalled staff meetings where the new manager would address only white colleagues while appearing to ignore her and others seated in the same room.
The stress, combined with the isolation of living abroad and the pressure of financially supporting her family in Kenya, contributed to mental health struggles in 2024.
Nairobi woman recalls how sending resignation notice left her stranded in hospital with KSh187k bill
She sought therapy and, through that process, rediscovered an appreciation for home.
By the time a conflict in the region forced her second Kuwait gym to close, Sandra had already made up her mind. She is now back in Kenya and is working towards launching her own fitness business, focusing on what she calls total fitness, an approach that treats mental, nutritional and social wellbeing as equally important as physical conditioning.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
Reporting originally appeared via TUKO. Read the full source for additional context.