When I first met Janet Adongo at her home in Kiambu County, what struck me was her easy, warm smile when she greeted my colleagues and me. She comes across as approachable, grounded, and full of cheer. But beneath that warmth lies a resilient woman who has weathered some of life’s hardest storms only to reinvent herself most unexpectedly.
Yet, if you pause long enough, you begin to notice something else, an unmistakable resemblance to her late father, Ambrose Adeya Adongo, the fiery former Secretary General of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).
“Besides the public man people knew, he was just my dad, a normal father and the best,” Janet recalls. “We just had a normal middle-class upbringing. That’s where I get my resilience from him, and my mom as well.”
Her mother, a secretary at the time, was retrenched after her father passed away. Suddenly, life became difficult. “That period was tough,” Janet recalls. “Our lives went down, and we had to adjust. But that’s where I learned never to give up. Reinventing yourself becomes the only option.”
That motto would later carry her through the twists and turns of life from journalism to the United Nations, and finally, to a surprising new chapter as the self-styled 'Qienyeji Queen', a poultry farmer with over 1,200 chickens on a quarter-acre plot.
Armed with a journalism degree from Daystar University, Janet, 45, began her career in the newsroom at KBC. Soon after, ambition and drive took her to Sierra Leone in 2003, where she interned before coming back into the country.
When she returned, she joined UNHCR in Nairobi as a public information assistant, a role she held for five years. Later, she ventured into television production, contributing to popular shows such as Makutano Junction and Tinga Tinga Tales, Kenya’s most loved shows at the time. Not one to sit still, she eventually founded her own company focusing on photography.
A flock of indigenous 'Kienyeji' poultry at Janet Adongo's farm in Kahawa Sukari, Kiambu County, on September 19, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
But her calling seemed to pull her back to humanitarian work. In 2017, she rejoined UNHCR, this time as a team leader in South Sudan. For five years, she worked in the field before being reassigned to UN headquarters here in Nairobi.
It was fulfilling work, but it came with moments of great difficulty. “COVID in 2020 was the hardest,” she remembers. “I was in South Sudan, in the middle of nowhere, with no internet. I could hardly make calls. No communication, it was a difficult part of my career and as a mother too.”
After her contract ended, she applied for jobs tirelessly. But the timing was not favourable. The Trump administration in the US had announced drastic cuts to USAID, one of the largest funders of humanitarian and development assistance worldwide. Budgets were frozen.
“No one was hiring. In fact, people were being laid off. I had never experienced such a big gap in my career. It was tough,” she admits.
As her savings dwindled, the ripple effect touched her children. They were used to international schools, but she had to make adjustments. “At some point, I removed them from school. We switched to tuition and private tutors because school fees were a problem. Everything had changed for me. It was a huge shift.”
Enter the Chickens; Funny enough, poultry wasn’t even her idea. Her mother had always kept chickens at home. Janet would occasionally help, especially when the hens hatched eggs. Each time chicks survived and thrived, she found herself excited.
“I never saw myself rearing chickens full-time,” she laughs. “I was an international humanitarian. Slowly, I started learning, mostly from YouTube videos, experimenting with feeds, and making mistakes along the way.”
By 2023, she was still juggling poultry on the side. But in March 2024, she was running it full-time, with no new contracts on the horizon, and she decided to commit fully.
That’s when the Kienyeji Queen brand was born. She started with just eight chickens. Today, her flock has grown to over 1,200 chickens. With the help of a digital automatic egg incubator with a 320 egg capacity, she now produces day-old chicks for commercial purposes, a fast-growing business in Kenya’s poultry sector.
“I wake up, I dress up, and I find something to do every single day to keep my life moving,” she says. “I’m having fun in it. People call me ‘mama kuku’ and I like it.”
She has employed one worker and has expanded her structures in the backyard of her house, selling both eggs and chicks. Her pricing is simple and deliberate. “The price is always sh1,500, but I make sure each bird weighs at least 1.5 kilos,” she explains.
Still, it hasn’t been without challenges. “Chicken feed is very expensive,” she explains. “They consume about 50 kilograms a day, and one sack costs Sh3,500 in the market. That’s before you even deal with rats, which love chicken food.”
Despite the hurdles, she’s determined to expand the business. “I haven’t fully commercialised yet, but I plan to scale up. For now, I’m learning, testing, and reinvesting. At this point, there’s nothing you can ask me about poultry that I don’t know.”
What keeps Janet going is not just survival, but the desire to leave a mark. “Legacy is extremely important to me,” she says thoughtfully. “I am a beneficiary of a legacy because of my parents. For me, it’s not just about raising chickens; it’s about showing others that you can reinvent yourself when life turns upside down.”
Her advice to new farmers is practical. “Avoid buying day-old chicks. It’s very hard to get them to survive. Go for chicks that are two to three months old, preferably from local sellers. The likelihood of survival is much higher.”
Janet Adongo, popularly known as Qienyeji Queen, shares her journey in rearing indigenous 'Kienyeji' poultry at her farm in Kahawa Sukari, Kiambu County, on September 19, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Is poultry farming as lucrative as her international humanitarian work? “Much less,” Janet admits. “When you’re a UN employee, you’re guaranteed money every four weeks. As an entrepreneur, you’re the one determining what comes into your account. I’m still building toward that.”
Yet, she insists she is much happier. “It’s peaceful, to be honest, when you’re the one determining your happiness. The only thing that stops more people from going into entrepreneurship is money. People compare it to what they’d make in a job even if that job makes them unhappy.”
She enjoys simple pleasures now. “Sometimes I just open the window and stare at my chickens. I’m passionate about putting chicken on people’s tables, tasty, clean chicken that hasn’t been contaminated. I want to make sure food reaching your table is not going to kill you.”
If offered a corporate job today, would she walk away from poultry? Her answer is firm. “No, not at this point. I’ve come too far. There’s already a rhythm to it. I don’t think so.”
Self-employment has given her what a formal job never did: time with her family. “I can now drop my kids off at school, pick them up, even cook for them. Corporate life was tiring. This life offers me freedom, family time, and peace of mind.”
But she is also realistic. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur. "People have different gifts. It’s not easy, especially when the business you’re investing in is also where you eat from. Capital is key. Balancing becomes difficult for someone moving from corporate life.”
Today, her social media pages buzz with stories of her poultry journey, drawing in followers who are curious about farming or simply inspired by her reinvention. “I always tell people, take every loss as a lesson. You learn from it," she adds.
