By Tony Mochama

Ann Randiki Njoroge is not your typical 9am to 5pm working woman who then goes home to help with the children’s homework. As the General Manager of Books First bookshops and restaurants, which are found in all Nakumatt supermarkets throughout the country, her work schedule is simply tight — at times a 24/7 operation.

Randiki with her husband (bottom) and children

This interview took place across two days and two venues, which accurately reflect her busy lifestyle. At Sherlock’s Den, Nakumatt lifestyle, which took place well around midnight and an entire afternoon at her comfortable apartment at Kilimani.

"Books First runs 17 bookshops and 10 restaurants, including small pubs and cyber cafes in Nakumatt outlets from Nairobi to Meru to Mombasa," Ann says, as she fields mobile phone calls from the three cell-phones, of varying simplicity-to-sophistication, in front of her. "We have a staff of 450, all Kenyan."

Sherlock’s’ Den is the latest offering of Books’ First, a coven serving affordable food and drinks till late. The interiors are muted in subtle light, that gives Sherlock’s Den a timeless ambience.

"I designed these interiors myself," Randiki reveals with a toothy smile, "Interior design is my personal hobby."

Her home, done in pastel and red colours, with family photographs tastefully hang on one wall and abstract art on another wall, reflects Ann’s colourful and elegant designs skills too.

Who is Ann Randiki Njoroge, other than the General Manager of the company Books’ First and an interior designer, as per hobby, par excellence?

She is the last-born in a family of seven boys and two girls, born of a mother, Wambui, and a father, Otieno, almost 45 years ago. Wambui Otieno?

"My mother was from Kiambu, and my father from Kisumu, and no, my mom Wambui Otieno has no relationship with the famous Wambui. Young Mbugua ain’t my step-dad." After a hearty laugh. Ann Randiki continues.

"I am the last born child of a bi-ethnic background, and because my Luo father married a Kikuyu woman, he was ostracised by his family. I grew up knowing only my relatives in Kiambu, but when my father died, his clan showed up for his body – and that’s when I got to know, and really appreciate, the rich culture to be found in my native Luo community. I really don’t know where the ethnic animosity here comes from. If people were better read, they would be less ignorant, and Kenya would be far more harmonious, instead of having tribal bigots."

But wasn’t she a spoiled girl being the lastborn? "No," she laughs." I wasn’t the family pet. In fact, my mother was very strict on me, especially after I got pregnant and got twins at only 16. She made sure she took care of me, and my twin lads, pushed me through high school and college where I did business management, with a specialisation in HR."

Unlike so many of the teen-mother tales, Randiki eventually married Njoroge, the father of her twins, and they even got a daughter, Caroline. One of the boys is married and lives in Germany, while Caroline and the other twin are in Atlanta, USA.

Ann Randiki is not just a grand-mom but also a free soul, having gotten family encumbrance out of the way, and now just occasionally visiting her children in Germany and America. "There are advantages to early motherhood," she smiles.

Her first job was at Red Bull, where she rose to be marketing manager. She then became General Manager of Mamba Disco at the Coast for three years in the mid-nineties, and that is where she cut her teeth in the entertainment, industry, an experience that has helped her blend the world of entertainment, like hiring the popular Hot Rod band in Books’ First clubs, with the company’s core business of retailing books across Nakumatt branches.

Ann Randiki also handled the Miss Kenya franchise in her time at Mambo, as well as being the first Miss Tourism, Coast, organizer — fun but really hard work.

How did Ann rise like a meteor from Nyali store manager to be GM of Books’ First?

"It’s not’ like a meteor,’" Randiki says. "To achieve anything worthwhile in this life, you have got to be patient. You have to be totally honest with your employers, so that they entrust you with bigger and better things. You have to have integrity with your customers, which means you work hard. Mostly, you have to work as if the business was your own, that’s the secret of success. If you are a woman, and want to achieve, work twice as hard as the guys."

In line with this, Randiki will sometimes be at the Wakulima markets at 4am to make sure their suppliers are supplying the day’s freshest produce to their restaurant outlets, opened their Nyali or Nairobi stores by 6.30am and always visits the Barnes’ and Noble bookshops – after which Books’ First is modeled – in the United States.

"Books’ First is about imagination and creativity," Randiki raves," and this is the way we manage the business." She not only wants the juices fresh and the bakers working, not basking, at dawn, but the bookshops spotlessly clean by morning, and will spend time in their little club-cum-restaurants till 1am to ensure folk are getting entertained.

"Last Christmas through to New Year, I was getting home at 1am, waking up at 4am, and back to work," Ann says. Then came the post-election woes. We lost millions but didn’t lay off anyone. The company, like the country, rode the storm."

Her attitude to her staff is simple. "We at Books’ First are first a family, and secondly, a business. I always tell my people they can love me, or hate me, but they have to remember they have a job to do, in order to take care of their families. If Books’ First suffers, we all suffer. If we succeed, we are all happy. So I punish the naughty staff, and we reward the best, even taking them to our Dubai store for three months to learn more, and have fun."

Randiki keeps an open door policy towards her staff, but she is also all over their stores.

"We already have the biggest chain of bookstores in Kenya, she says proudly; and I hope we can one day have the biggest chain of restaurants."

Her vision for Books’ First is to "grow with Nakumatt."

Her advice to women managers in any such business is three-fold:

"People can eat and drink anywhere, that’s why pubs-and-eateries in Dagoretti get middle-class clientele, if service is excellent."

"Never underestimate the ambience of a place. It sets the mood, and that‘s good for business. Check out Sherlock’s Den."

"If the world is a global village, then everyone shops at the mall!

At Books’ First, being in Nakumatt, you find virtually everything.

But remember to buy a book, for intellectual content and spiritual nourishment; then stop by the restaurant for physical nourishment."

Randiki’s inspiration is her boss, Books First director Mr Asham, who has turned "his love for books into a successful import-and-retail business, combined it with eateries-and-entertainment, with a little surfing as a side dish". "Books, coffee, liquor, sports, great food, fantastic music, we offer it all at Books First,"Randiki says, obviously proud of their achievement. "Customers love it."

Any last words, I ask, as she bustles away. There is a friend’s father’s funeral in Western Kenya, (the former beauty queen Yolanda Masinde’s dad) and that is where she’ll be heading.

"Work where you work as if you own the place," she says, a smile on her face. "And if you are a woman, work twice as hard." It’s not after all, Instinct concludes, just a clichÈ. G.M. Randiki is living proof of that particular bookish aphorism.