Peris Wanjiru

Kenyan pilot Peris Wanjiru has logged more than 6,000 hours in the skies of East, Central and Southern Africa, but her flight path began behind a call-centre desk. In 2009 she left a customer-care job at Barclays Bank, won a coveted slot in Kenya Airways’ AB Initio cadet program and, three years later, climbed into the right seat of a Boeing 737 as one of the carrier’s youngest Second Officers. Today she flies the Embraer 190 as First Officer, trusted with dawn bushland departures and midnight coastal approaches alike, and sits on the executive council of the Kenya Airline Pilots Association, where she pushes for fatigue-risk rostering and merit-based promotions.

Wanjiru’s bigger mission is to redraw the cockpit’s gender balance. She coaches high-school girls on physics prep, arranges simulator open days and has mentored a dozen cadets now wearing their own airline wings. Industry peers cite her for shattering the “2%” ceiling that still defines African flight decks, yet she frames her ascent as proof that talent, not tradition, should steer aviation’s future. Next she aims for captaincy and an instructor rating, determined to ensure the next generation of Kenyan pilots sees women not as exceptions, but as standard crew.