When celebrated Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o won the Oscars, she urged the world to never give because all dreams are valid.
It is this faith that Winnie Adipo kept for years. Her life’s ambition was to join the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).
She unsuccessfully tried her luck four times in joining KDF but she never gave up. Today, she is a sergeant with the US Air Force.
Adipo’s zeal to join the Kenyan military was so strong that she would have bribed her way into the Kenyan military given the chance.
”At one point, I got someone who was connected to the government and was demanding for Ksh200,000 bribe, yet I only had Sh. 1,000 in my pocket,” she told Tuko.
Luckily, she decided to try her luck with the US Air Force when an opportunity presented itself and she was accepted.
Adipo applied for a diversity lottery Visa – otherwise known as the Green Card – and moved to the US in 2015.
In 2016, she joined the US Air Force.
She says she has worked hard to get to where she is given that she is an African native but she is grateful that she finally made it.
“Being African and a woman in the military took a lot to push my way up, but things are easier these days courtesy of programs like diversity inclusion and leadership which offer more opportunities to explore,” she said.
Adipo’s hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. She is a Staff Sergeant at the US Air Force pilot training base.
