Rose Mosero dreams big. She views dreaming as an achievement. She sees the size of failures as an indication of the size of her dreams. Dream small, fail small. Such may help explain her workaholism. “I lived in a society where everything worked, and coming back to Kenya, and finding so much opportunity to make things work, and now East Africa, that drives me to do better and be better.”
That society was Australia, where she practised litigation. “I moved here six years back, initially on sabbatical, but faced an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down, and it just made sense to stay.”
Obviously, anyone who has success has luck, but there are three or four other things you need: intelligence, talent, a strong work ethic, indefatigability, and assiduity.
Mosero has all these. Which is why she was made an offer she couldn’t refuse, as a data protection and cybersecurity adviser to the East African Community under the Eastern African Regional Digital Integration Project (World Bank).
"When I look in the mirror, I see God’s grace. And I can’t wait to make more impact in a global role in a similar field."
“That entails harmonising laws, specifically on data protection and cybersecurity, finding pathways in terms of securing digital infrastructure within the East African Community.”
It is the creation of laws and policies and framing how the digital economy looks like and seeing the tangible day-to-day benefits that never feel like work to her. And to think it has only been what? Six months? Previously, she was the deputy data commissioner dealing with compliance in Kenya.
“My father was murdered when we were young,” she says, “and my mother raised us like nothing had changed. My mother pushed herself, and that’s where my ambition comes from. When I look in the mirror, I see God’s grace. And I can’t wait to make more impact in a global role in a similar field.”
-Eddy Ashioya