With eyes that saw what is, a mind that dreamed of what could be and an ambition to merge the two was how Amina interacted with her childhood in the dusty town of Isiolo, Kenya where the dominant culture is male chauvinistic and the collective identity is that of being marginalized and underdeveloped even relative to the rest of Kenya. Amina grew up in Isiolo fortunately in an educated household, one in which she was allowed to say things like “I want to be a pilot” even if all she knew of planes at six years old was that her father went on them on his trips abroad and that the smiling lady on the cover of the inflight magazine he brought home in 2000(Captain Irene Koki Mutungi) flew planes and so would she someday.
This dream informed her entire educational path as she was admitted to the best girls’ high school in Kenya, The Alliance Girls High School after being top in her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. She went on to be awarded a full scholarship to the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing, China where she graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering in Aeronautics (design option) and thereafter a full scholarship to Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia where she attained her Master of Science in Air Traffic and Transport Engineering. It is in Serbia that she acquired her Private Pilot License in the first step towards the achievement of her dream of commercial flying.
She is currently an Operations Manager at Skyward Express while working towards her commercial pilot’s license and with plans to undertake her PhD in Operations Research (Tentative Research proposal title; Statistical Ananalysis And Planning Of Domestic Airport Networks For The Single African Air Transport Market). Amina is passionate about languages too, currently speaking 9 languages while committed to learning more. Her ultimate goal is to have her own life power something greater than herself by inspiring young girls that no depths of beginnings are too low from which to soar to the skies and beyond.
- Top student Isiolo county Kenya Certificate of Primary Education
- Chinese Government Scholarship awardee, Bachelor of Engineering in Aeronautics (design option)
- Serbian Government Scholarship awardee, Master of Science in Air Traffic and Transport Engineering
- Kenyan Private Pilot Licence
- Fluent in nine languages
- Founder of Community Based Organisation, Layshbu to improve education for children or marginalized Northern Kenya -recognized by changemarkers.org.
- Studying towards a Commercial Pilot Licence and PHD in Operations Research (Tentative Research proposal title; Statistical Analysis and Planning Of Domestic Airport Networks For The Single African Air Transport Market)
- You can read about Amina full story the first Kenyan female pastoralist commercial pilot.
- Departure Sign Travel African Women Pilots Scholarship awardee, commercial pilot training.