Written By Ramadhan Kambi 📝
Once you meet Agnes Gwela Adhiambo, you will be taken aback by her love for science, a subject and profession that has for decades been dominated by men.
Various study theories done have persistently shown that majority of those venturing into science drop out of the way to shift their career path though recently there has been an increase.
But Agnes and despite all odds, the girl from Maseno is among the many young girls who went for it and managed to obtain a Ph.D. from Oxford University at a very tender age.
She is currently a Biomedical researcher post-doctorate research fellow at KEMRI Wellcome Trust -Kilifi and is among the celebrated scientists during this year’s international day for Women and girls in science.
In an interview, she shares her journey to the field of science.
Not your ordinary girl
“I was a very curious child I must stay weird child I did not want to play with dolls neither did I like to watch cartoons; in those moments I would much rather have like small animals to do my very crude experiments at the annoyance of my mother,” she said.
To her, she would always be busy outside the house bisecting small animals being inquisitive to know what lies under the skin of insects.
Back then she did not know that it was called science until she got a point of going to school and she understood that it was science.
From that time, she began having an interest in any subject that sought to answer the questions she wanted.
The second born in a family of seven, including three boys and four girls, Adhiambo grew up in Maseno and would spend her day collecting frogs and crabs to bisect them.
She recalls how at a very young age she would do her own surgeries for the frogs and other insects which did not go well with her mother who was angry with her always.
“I remember once we went to play and I got a crab and I heated it up, it was dark colour before heating it up but after it became pink, I wondered whether it was the story of Jesus of turning water into wine, its only years later that I came to understand after searching from doctor google that I found that it’s a protein that when heated turns into a completely different thing,” she said.
She began school in 1991 at Maseno mixed primary but four years later went to a boarding school in Siaya county where she sat for her KCPE.
While in high school Adhiambo developed much interest in biological subjects and chemistry and worked hard in them which gave her good grades.
In 1999 she joined alliance girls’ high school in Kikuyu up to 2002 when she completed her KCSE before joining the University of Nairobi in 2004 to 2007 to pursue her Bachelors in medical biochemistry and graduated in 2007 with first-class honor.
“I took up an internship position at the KEMRI welcome Trust program in Kilifi where I started my classical training in biomedical research where my interest in immunology grew,” she said.
While in KEMRI welcome trust she applied for Ph.D. to study immunology and translational medicine at the University Of Oxford from October 2009 up to 2013 when she graduated with her Ph.D.
Scarce Women In STEM
Adhiambo then returned home and landed again at KEMRI and since then she has been doing research in Kilifi ever since.
Her research is focused on understanding the immune mechanism that predisposes young children to serious infections.
Generally, she said there are still very few women in the field of Stem which is like the gender stereotype that science is for men.
She did not take it that way during her time.
“There is no biological evidence to date that shows that the part of the brain that impacts the intellect is superior in males, that is a myth, I don’t know where that came from maybe in certain cultures coming from male-dominated societies you will just have like a narrative that is perpetuated over time and people begin to believe it,” she said.
Adhiambo said the government should begin mentoring girls from the elementary stage and particularly now that there is a competence-based curriculum so as to inspire them to venture into sciences and help them grow their ambitions.
Further, she said there is a need for government to upscale their university to reduce the costs incurred for people traveling abroad to pursue science courses.
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