Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa has learned a lot about authority and leadership. Speaking about such traits and crediting them to his educational background and his mother, Mr. Ndegwa advised Kenyans to ensure authority doesn’t get to their heads.
He was speaking on Engage YouTube channel on 21st January 2025, where the audience remained captivated as he delved into his life milestones.
Ndegwa calls himself “the boy from Starehe,” with his life lesson from there being “always keep improving yourself.”
He also spoke about the curiosity people have regarding how he remains grounded even as the CEO of the largest telecom in East Africa. “I was taught at a basic level to remember who you are, where you come from.”
Adding,
“There was always something from the people who influenced me. My mum… I learned from my mum always telling us, ‘You can fight, we didn’t get what you were going after, education, but we have sacrificed everything we have for you to access it.’ Same thing with G.W. Griffin, same thing with the headmaster who made me change the school.”
He continued,
“It is very important that you remember where you came from and you always stay true to who you are, and if you ask anyone who works with me and looks at the profile, they’ve always said, ‘this guy has always been the same.’ I was taught at a basic level to remember who you are, where you come from.”
“Authority does not get into my head because all the learnings and the lessons that I learned from my mum, from Griffin, from the headmaster who took me to Starehe, are still in my head. But at the end of the day, it’s not because only of those people, it’s because I made the choice.”
“I was saying to Eric that artistes have a lot of influence on people because they appeal to the soul, and then he said to me, ‘I hope we have a positive influence.’ And I said that’s a choice; even leaders have influence on people, but it’s about the choice you make. For me, if you ask me the person who’s made the biggest impact in my life, it’s my mum.”
He explained further,
“So even when I go through tough times and difficult times, I still remember that I have had to go through a very tough journey, and I remember my former employer’s brand: ‘keep walking,’ isn’t it? And I truly live ‘keep walking,’ whether I drink it or not is a separate issue. Because when you are a CEO, there will be a lot of noise, and how do you lead in this context of all this noise? Many times when people ask me, ‘So, are you not worried?’ Then I say, ‘About what?'”
“The only thing that worries me are those things that make me feel that I’m not doing my job, either protecting the reputation of the company, protecting myself and my team, or not serving Kenyans or our customers.”
How does he remain sane?
“Sane… is your own definition. Sanity is your own definition, but for me, the way that I think about sanity is that you are able to hold your nerve because generally, CEOs’ lives are tough. Therefore, the only way that you can ensure that you’re making the right decision is to be present, isn’t it? If you do not sleep well, if you do not exercise, if you do not have space to rest, you will have a problem. So, we have to lead ourselves for us to lead others. One of the ways that I have discovered is not to let authority get into your head.”
“If there’s the biggest lesson that I would say in leadership or throughout my life, and what I was taught by my mum, don’t let authority get into your head,” Ndegwa concluded.
by MAUREEN WARUINGE
