For every kilometre Fridah Kagwiria Murungi rides this year, it shall be for impact. As a well-travelled adventure rider, the Moi University-trained chemical and processing engineer has seen the ugly side of poverty and how it affects young children suffering from cancer. She is now riding for impact for children battling cancer. All thanks to adventure riding whose start goes back to 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Five years later, Kagwiria is riding with a bigger purpose beyond adventure. Nevertheless, how did it all start? What’s her journey as a female adventure like in a country where very few women take on two wheels?
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Who is Kagwiria Murungi?
Kagwiria Murungi is a Kenyan engineer, a mother and a bubbly adventure rider. She loves everything about these three roles in her life. She studied chemical engineering at Moi University and is a Liquefied Petroleum and Natural Gas specialist. Her career in Kenya’s LPG/LNG industry started as an intern at Bamburi Cement and later rose to become the LPG plant manager at the National Oil Corporation of Kenya.
Kenyan female adventure biker Kagwiria Murungi. She is a career chemical engineer based in Nairobi. Photo/Kagwiria Murungi
With over 17 years of experience in the LPG sector, she is a campaigner for eco-friendly integration of LPG into existing infrastructure. A part of her job involves designing sustainable systems conforming to set industry standards. Some of the big projects she has handled include the following:
- National Youth Service and the National Police Service switch to LPG
- Mwananchi Gas Project
- LPG reticulation for the National Housing Corporation
In addition, the middle-aged Kenyan adventure rider serves as a technical committee member at the Kenya Bureau of Standards for LPG installation. Her decades of experience help in policy formulation.
How Did Kagwiria Murungi Become an Adventure Rider?
Kenyan female adventure biker Kagwiria Murungi. She is a career chemical engineer specializing in LPG. Photo/Kagwiria Murungi
She is a master orator often capturing her riding journey in a surreal way. She discloses that while her professional journey as a biker started in 2020, she always loved being on two wheels, just like her mother did when she was a young girl. Then, it was so rare to see a woman riding across Kenya but her mother challenged this norm with blessings from her father.
“I had the privilege of growing up in a household where our father allowed us to experiment. He never used to ride but he loved his bicycle but he allowed my mum – he allowed us to experiment. That’s where this is coming from,” she narrates at a past interview on Two Wheels Paradise hosted by veteran Kenyan biker Meshack Samson Maina.
Kagwiria Murungi had riding as ‘second place’ in her life. It was just a matter of when she would make the dream a reality and not if. “It was second place for me. It was always one of those things I knew I was gonna do,” she remarks. Her major shift came in 2020 with the purchase of her first motorcycle, Zontes ZT250-V. It was a way to ease the mental pressure that came with the cessation of movement imposed on Kenyans following the pandemic.
The Kenyan engineer-cum-adventurer on the bike had a close shave with death months after her riding debut. She realised that going back to a motorcycle class was the answer to avoid a repeat of such an accident. It took her a year to train perfectly and have the confidence to travel the width and breadth of Kenya and beyond. She stretched the bike hard enough and she discovered that she wasn’t a speed freak but an adventure rider fascinated by off-road riding.
Today, she rides an easy-to-handle Kawasaki KLR 650 that has taken her to the remotest parts of East Africa. The sturdy nature of this bike is perfect for her off-road conquests. A KLR 650 is not a demanding bike in maintenance and handling, hence a good fit for her escapades in rough terrains.
Riding for Impact
In the course of her adventure over the last couple of years, Kagwiria Murungi came face to face with the plight of young children battling cancer.
“In 2025 I’m riding for impact,” she firmly states. One of the major Riding with Impact campaigns she has undertaken is helping out children with cancer who come from poor backgrounds. She has seen firsthand the despair in these families and the hope her intervention brings.
“I came across these children and their families and I just couldn’t do anything. I decided 2025 would be the year I would do something about it.”
She set up an M-Changa platform in January which has so far enabled her to place seven children on cancer treatment for a full year under the Social Health Authority (SHA).
“As a whole family, they are able to access treatment…that was the best way to do this,” she exclaims.
Is Riding for Women Challenging?
Kenyan female adventure biker Kagwiria Murungi. She is a career chemical engineer with a heart to travel. Photo/Kagwiria Murungi
From experience, Kagwiria Murungi insists that riding is more challenging for women than it is for men. Much more than the normal gender biases rocking such an undertaking. Some of the unique factors that affect female riders are weather changes in different regions. They affect their monthly cycles greatly. In the event a female biker rides on days that her cycle is on, she needs more stops and water than a male biker. Women on period are prone to fatigue while riding more than men which necessitates more rest stops to rejuvenate.
Secondly, riding in the rain exposes them to yeast infections in cases where the riding gear leaks or is substandard. Bacteria thrive in warmth and moisture. Sadly, bathrooms in fueling stations don’t make it better because they are bleeding ground for infections.
“For female riders, there is a little bit more that goes in there,” she notes.
Despite these challenges, Kagwiria Murungi is encouraging more women to get into adventure riding but learn the rules of the game first. These include safety riding and taking care of themselves correctly to avoid infections. Simple mannerisms such as drying the riding gear after a wet ride and having add-ons in every ride would be helpful. Lastly, learn their body limit; only cover what the body can handle and rest when you should.
