Meet the engineer of world's largest floating library, girl from Kerio Valley

When the world's largest floating bookstore docked in Mombasa in August, it made headlines as book enthusiasts eagerly waited to make unforgettable memories inside MV Logos Hope. On board the ship were 375 passengers and crew, among them three Kenyans, including First Engineer Christine Chongwo.

Christine is responsible for the daily maintenance and operations of the engineering and technical aspects of the vessel. Her story began in Kerio Valley, Baringo County. She is the second last born in a family of 12. 

“I schooled in mud-walled classrooms until I got to class six and went to a boarding school, where I got 415 marks and joined Moi Girls Eldoret. This was, in fact, the most favourite phase of my life, where, for the first time, I met people from all over the country, helping me expand my horizons. The teachers, and the principal at the time, were all so nice. To date I am still in communication with some of the alumnae.”

She struggled with her high school fees from time to time but remained resilient and completed with an A. She then joined the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology for a course in mechatronics engineering.

All the while, she hoped she would be an engineer working with East African Breweries Limited, but at 24, that would change after her first trip to Mombasa that the university had organised. She expressed to her friends the desire to work on ships in the coastal city, which, to her, was “very beautiful and relaxed”.

She finished her university studies in December 2012. On January 11, 2013, one of the friends she had spoken to about her newfound interest in ships called, saying he had seen an advert by the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA). He asked whether she would like to apply.

With a hopeful heart, she travelled to Eldoret and made the application, whose deadline was just a day away. Three months later, she was invited by KMA for an interview, and for the second time in her life, she returned to Mombasa before settling as a trainee surveyor. She was on probation for nine months and afterwards, she and four others were sent to Australia.

“We travelled in 2014 and enrolled for marine engineering. At the end, I emerged the best overall student for the whole college. The difficult part came when I had to look for ships, as we were required to sail for a given number of months, in my case nine, before I got my first licence. And despite being a KMA employee, it was still difficult for myself and others to get these ships.”

When she was just about to give up on finding a ship, she engaged one lecturer and he pointed her towards MV Logos Hope. In 2016, she and two others signed on the ship and they did their cadetship in one go, sailing for 12 months continuously. She sat and passed her oral exams in 2018, achieving an officer of the watch certificate of competency.

“At that time, even with it being the minimum licence, I was the first woman in Kenya to acquire it.”

Christine then returned to Kenya and worked at KMA as she looked for a ship because she sought to attain the next level of the required competency. In 2019, she sailed on Willem van Oranje ship for five months before returning to MV Logos Hope at the end of the same year.

In 2020, she was stuck at sea and ended up sailing for 11 months on board MV Logos Hope, but it was a plus because she completed the required sea time for the next licence fast. Unfortunately, she could not sit the oral exam because most airports were locked down.

Last year, she sat the exam and attained a Class 2 Certificate of Competency, which qualified her to become a first engineer. By the end of this year, she hopes to fulfil her last qualification to become a chief engineer, who is the most senior engine officer of a ship and is responsible for all operations and maintenance of the engine room and other machinery.

Afterwards, she will return to Kenya as a government surveyor of ships. The process will have taken 10 years. In this role, she will conduct registration surveys, surveys of foreign-going ships and local drafts, and enforce ship safety standards to ensure marine industrial safety.

Although the job has enabled her to travel the world, the hardest bit has been the sea sickness and the many months spent away from family with strangers. “Whenever you are sailing, there has to be an engineer on watch all the time. So, imagine being on your four-hour shift and you are seasick, and it doesn't matter that you are vomiting every 15 minutes because you have to work.”

Her parents, more so at the beginning, were unsure of her choice. “Every time I returned home a bit skinnier than I left, my mother would urge me to quit the job and return home as a teacher in the local school. Now they fully support me, but maybe if it were up to them, they would prefer I do something different.”

It has taken her a positive attitude and resilience to get to where she is. She has embraced a learning and growing attitude, knowing all too well that it is her responsibility to succeed, despite her humble beginnings. 

For the younger people who are still in secondary school and trying to find a career, she advises that they find enough information on what it means and what the opportunities are in specific fields. They should have plan B in case the careers end up not being so marketable.

But overall, she says they just need to be open-minded because there are new emerging careers with the advent of technology that are even more marketable than traditional careers.

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