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Playing for a living: Meet Kenya’s newest queen of e-sports
At 27, Magdaline Mumbi defies the traditional image of a professional. Her workplace isn’t a corporate office in a high-rise building, and her tools are not spreadsheets or financial reports. Instead, she operates with a gaming console, a headset, and lightning-fast reflexes.
Known on the online scene alias “Bambina”, Mumbi is one of Kenya’s rising stars in the competitive e-sports world. An industry better known for its male dominance than female representation. Mumbi competes professionally in the Tekken 8 sport. Her gaming is more than a hobby. It is a career, a platform for influence and a source of empowerment.
Mumbi’s journey began like many others. “I began playing mobile games at 10. I would play block games and shooting games with the neighborhood boys. I challenged the boys and through this, I stood out,” she says.
Mumbi’s journey took a major turn at 19, thanks to the Safaricom BYOB program's arrival at Kilifi, where she was studying at the time*. Driven by passion, she qualified and signed up for her first tournament. “It is through the educational program that I learned I could pursue e-sports as a career. This sparked my interest,” she says.
In 2022, courtesy of the Global e-sports Federation, she flew to Turkey for a tournament. “I stepped into the global e-sports stage, competing alongside players around the world and gaining insights into the high-level intensity of international gaming. It was really a humbling experience,” she says.
Since then, she kept on showing up and never gave up. In 2024, Mumbi, alias Bambina, represented Kenya in the Kongo e-sports championship and finished fourth in Africa.
As a woman in a male-dominated space, Mumbi has faced challenges. “I have had to prove myself twice as much as the male players just to prove that all my achievements are by merit,” she says. She has also faced exclusion in gaming lobbies due to the political landscape in the e-sports industry. At home, convincing her family that e-sports is a worthy career path wasn’t that easy.
“Having been raised in a traditional setup and studying all the way to university, my parents felt that e-sports wasn’t a potential career path. but that changed when I got my first pay cheque.” she says.
Today, Mumbi earns a living through the e-sports career. She treats her career like any other business. She has daily schedules. As a team manager of the Leijona e-sports Team, she begins her day by overseeing, guiding, and supporting the team. She later practices Tekken 8 for four hours. Being a trained e-sporter, she has to practice daily and improve her skillset. “This isn’t just a hustle, it is a profession, and I treat it with a lot of respect,” she says. In the evenings, she goes to the gym.
Mumbi says that being a competitive e-sport athlete has built her confidence significantly. “It has improved my mental health, and I am more in touch with myself. I also get to represent my country abroad and that is really cool,” she says, and urges women to join the e-sport world since female representation in the industry remains low.
“Let us break the mold,” she says.
