Chebet’s ‘new face of Africa’ shines on designer bags

Ms Chebet Mutai, co-owner WazaWazi, a leather designer bags making company at their workshop in Industrial Area. PHOTO | FILE 

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU, margarettag@hotmail.com

Chebet Mutai calls herself and her fashion designs “the new face of Africa.” She says she wants the world to know that Africa stands for elegance, beauty, chic and style — not simply war, starvation, strife and Ebola.

“We may not have big money, but we have big ideas, imagination and originality which is distinctly our own,” says the 31-year-old former World Bank employee turned ‘bag artist” (and entrepreneur) as she now calls herself.

The child of Rift Valley farmers who brought her up knowing how to plant, weed and harvest crops from an early age, Chebet says that experience convinced her she wasn’t a farmer. Nor does she have an affinity for farm animals despite having grown up around her beloved grandmother’s dairy cows.

“The irony is that today, I make my living off of dead cows,” she said, laughing at the fact that her best bags are made out of leather, most of which she buys from Bata in Limuru.

But one of the biggest problems that she has in her business, WazaWazi, which she registered in 2007 (shortly after her first child was born) is the shortage of leather, which she says is understandable given Bata makes leather shoes.

But that doesn’t help her solve one of her big challenges—the fact that demand for her chic leather bags exceeds her supply.

A business woman disinclined to let obstacles hold her back for very long, Chebet is always prepared to innovate and adapt.

“When I can’t get enough leather or I don’t have enough cash in hand, I go for canvas,” she says, noting that she’s been blending materials as well as styles of African design ever since she took the leap of faith, left her salaried position with the World Bank and began to pursue the career she is most passionate about which is in fashion and design.

“I never studied design, nor do I even know how to sew,” says the Kenyatta University (KU) graduate whose double major was in French and Economics.

But it was apparent since her early days at KU that she not only had an eye for fashionable bags, but also had an extraordinary aptitude for marketing as well.

“It all began with one bag that I’d bought in Eastleigh for Sh900. It was just plastic, made in China, but my classmate coveted it, so I sold it to her for Sh2,000.”

Chebet quickly went back to Eastleigh and bought ten more bags, which were snatched up just as quickly by other classmates. But after she bought and sold 20 more, she realised those bags no longer appealed to her since they’d been copied and were now everywhere.

“So I got a loan form a dear friend and took my first trip to Dubai,” she said. These bags also sold well, but Chebet realised she wanted to make original bag designs of her own.

“I was just starting up that side of the business when I got a call from the World Bank to come for an interview.”

Chebet had almost forgotten she’d applied “everywhere” for a job after she’d graduated. “I was just about to board a plane to take my third trip to Dubai when the call came.”