Robertina Mbula was studying finance when she stumbled into modeling. With a few crowns under her belt, she founded the Tianar Agency, a social enterprise that got her into a competitive entrepreneurship accelerator program by SHE by Spark, an organisation that empowers women entrepreneurs. She has started a modeling course to help models professionalise the little understood and largely dismissed field that sees many of them exploited.
But this is not where her story begins.
The New Year is a beginning, a renewal. Losing a loved one in this season is life-changing, more so for children. Robertina was in form three when her mother passed away in New Year’s Eve of 2006.
Her grades dipped. As an only child, the world had suddenly become a lonely place for her, but her grandparents, whom she went to live with since her mother had been a single parent, quickly filled the void and took good care of her. Earlier on, she had lived with her aunt and two cousins, an aunt who was a disciplinarian.
“She gave me a good foundation, a bearing in life that has served me well,” she says.
In secondary school, Robertina was shy, which allowed her to immerse herself in books. Watching her mother battle with poor health, she was determined to become a doctor.
After her mother’s death however, her education footing swayed a bit, and she failed to make the points required to study medicine. She however qualified to study a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. The finance specialty she undertook was miles away from medicine, but regardless, Robertina took it well to graduate top of her class with a first class in 2013.
Today, her degree pays her bills: She is an accountant in a company in Naivasha County.
While in college, one of Robertina’s life-defining moments happened. She was in class reading, characteristically being her quiet self, unaware that an exciting event was being planned. That evening, a friend pointed out that with her height, (she is 5’7”) she could easily win an upcoming modeling competition.
“I had never thought of modelling,” says Robertina, “I was quiet and shy, and modeling seemed for the gay and outgoing souls.”
She gave it a shot anyway. Problem is, she did not have money to buy the elegant clothes and shoes the event demanded. Taking care of herself had created a can-do attitude, and looking at her closet, she spotted an oversize dress she had been given by her aunt that could do if altered here and there.
“I then took banana leaves and designed what I thought was an interesting headgear and a skirt. I could not believe it when I hit the catwalk and my fellow students cheered me on.”
Robertina won that competition. A year later in 2012, she participated in the Miss Peace Nakuru, and was crowned the fairest of them all. Could this be her destiny?
She decided to test more waters. That same year, she won the Miss Catholic Diocese of Nakuru and ultimately, she was crowned the Face of Naivasha.
In her short career in the modelling world, Robertina noticed that models get little or no respect. “The models get no respect, being one is like a polite way of saying you are jobless,” she recently told a roomful of entrepreneurs at the Pawa254 during a presentation in an event organised by She by Spark, which accelerates woman-led ventures that support women and girls in South Africa and Kenya; “This disrespect sees models paid little, others even sexually exploited. I thought this could be changed, and so I founded my own agency, Tianar Models, in 2013.”
Tianar is Robertina’s nickname, which she tweaked to inject meaning - Transcending Ideas to Acquire and Nurture Aggressive Role Models. She wants her agency to be recognised as one that builds up models holistically, not just teaching them how to walk or dress, but how to negotiate for business and other finer details.
Through Tianar, Robertina, together with her business partner, Cosmas Nzomo, founded the annual Laikipia Fashion Gala in Nanyuki in 2015.
“We have hosted two editions now - it is a beauty and charity themed event where we also invite corporates to exhibit their products.”
Nanyuki, being the capital of Laikipia, is home to the British Army Training Unit, and is quite popular with tourists due to the wildlife and other interesting features.
“The fashion week therefore holds great promise, largely due to location, and there is room for improvement to take it to the height it deserves.”
Probably due to her life’s experience, and having been raised by her extended family, Robertina is passionate about giving back, which saw her initiate the campaign, Beauty Meets Charity, in 2013, the same year she founded Tianar. The pageant contest brings together models that are ready to be charity ambassadors.
These are among the activities that convinced SHE by Spark to select her, among other promising women entrepreneurs. They spent a week at a Nairobi hotel, learning about business.
And now, signing up with Tianar, the models are taken through a three-month course, learning the industry’s tricks, from image development, contract law to skin care and make-up and how to select an agency.
“A country like South Africa, which is closer home, has well established training academies, and Kenya, with its rich cultural heritage, stands to win big if modelling can be professionalised.”
Proof that you can do it all, Robertina manages to do all these while still holding a day job, and on her free time, visits the less privileged in the company of the models she is mentoring.
