My Journey
It all started with a fascination with science, great scientists of old, and with the beauty of dedicating your life force to create a better world. I set my mind towards science in middle school, and an impromptu excursion to our school’s forest sold its promise to me – that even in death mulch can have meaning and nurture life. But I never thought I could match up to the global impact I always dreamed of. My grades never caught up with my dreams. And as much as I wanted to do good in this world I was resigned to the fact that I never quite could at a tender age.
Entrepreneurship
I started my first business when I was six years old. I would save my juice boxes for break and lunch, and make popsicles overnight using popsicle makers that were 'Easter eggs' in my favourite Coco Pops cereal by Kellogs. Needless to say that parental intervention, and not nutritional requirement created a hostile business environment, and I had to close shop. But I've circled back to this rewarding hobby multiple times over the decades. As a second hand phone merchant in primary school, to a shylock in highschool, to a poultry farmer and website designer after highschool, and to a medical supplier for governmental agencies as a university student.
Leadership
Leadership, and its costs is often a painful, and lonely journey. But my sensitivity to my fellow beings has driven me, against logic, to this high octane environment multiple times. And the purpose, satisfaction, and pure joy that I derive from nurturing others, empowering strangers, protecting the voiceless, and connecting with the massess has given this introvert profound joy and grounding.
Research
I never visualized my future as a classical physician. And this disconnect with my peers almost drove me to madness. I pivoted to Medical Physiology through an intercalated degree programme in my medical school at the University of Nairobi, and the rest, in the most cliche of terms, was history.
Dr. Muinde Nthusi
I was born and raised in Nairobi. And had the privilege of growing up with a personal computer from the age of 3. My exposure to computers, and gaming consoles at a young age imbued me with a confidence, calmness, and comfort behind these blue screens. My exposure to science, to medicine, to leadership, and to people sensitized me to the challenge of the world. I am on an ambitious, maybe even foolhardy, path to coalesce my boyhood obsession with my youthful idealism of developing novel therapies through computational discovery for my fellow Africans, and humanity as a whole.