Profile
the Veon
Name: Nyambura Ngugi V. aka the Veon
Occupations: Writer, blogger.
Base: Nairobi
Website: https://theveon.co.ke/
Social media
Facebook Page: theVeon
Twitter: @theVeon (https://twitter.com/theVeon )
Instagram: @theveon_ (https://www.instagram.com/theveon_/ )
Creative Enterprise Bio
Nyambura Ngugi is a writer, blogger, performing poet and in her capacity as a blogger has also worked a digital influencer.
Nyambura’s passion for writing has been manifested in three main ways; as a reporter, a blogger and poet.
As a reporter, Nyambura has written for UP Nairobi where she wrote on the entertainment scene in Nairobi and covered events. Additionally, she has written for Whats Good Networks, ( Hapa Kenya, (http://www.hapakenya.com/author/nyambura/ ) among others.
Nyambura was the featured poet in the June 2017 edition of Kwani? Open Mic, Nairobi’s longest running open mic platform.
On the blogging scene, Nyambura set up her blog in 2015. The blog went on to garner a SOMA Awards Nomination for the best New Blog. She has additionally ghost | guest blogged for Brands such as Coke Studio, Spire Bank, KAPS, Internet Solutions, Telkom Kenya amongst others.
Creative Journey | Life-cycle
Nyambura was born into a family of book lovers and had no other option to love books herself. In the evenings, when they had run out of books to read, Nyambura and her siblings would take turns narrating stories to each other. The plots were heavily borrowed from the books they had been reading. It was all great fun, however, Nyambura constantly felt like her stories were weaker compared to those told by her older siblings. To solve this problem, Nyambura decided to start writing hers down, with the plan to work with them using an eraser and gradually improving on them. This worked and it no longer was something Nyambura did to outshine her sibling, she now did it for fun.
In class 3, Nyambura interviewed at a boarding school and was successful. In boarding school she was introduced to more books, more writers and poetry. She gravitated towards poetry, and for a time ditched writing prose for poetry.
Her love for poetry stuck through, but it wasn’t untilhigh school that she finally cashed in on it. On her second year of high school, she wrote a dramatized choral versefor the drama festivals and directed the performance piece. The piece advanced up to the District level. This motivated Nyambura to start writing for the ‘own composition’ classes during the music festivals in the second term. Nyambura went on to write for the music festivals throughout high school. It was clear to her that Nyambura wanted to pursue a career in writing.
Following writing her KCSE examinations, Nyambura pursued a degree in Print Journalism, at the Multi Media University of Kenya. During her campus years, Nyambura wrote for Hapa Kenya and UP Nairobi. At HapaKenya, Nyambura majored in business writing while at Up Nairobi, Nyambura specialized in entertainment news, profiles and event reportage.
During that same period, Nyambura set up a free blog for her poetry. In 2015, she bought the domain and advanced into creative writing. In the same year the blog was nominated for a SOMA Award for Best New Blog. Following the nomination, Nyambura was contracted by Coke Studio, via BAKE, to create content for their blog.
Nyambura cites most of her influences to be local writers. She met a majority of her network via the Storymoja Bloggers program. She participated in the program through 2014 and 2015. Another big achievement for Nyambura, during that time was the shortlisting and publication of her poem in the BN Poetry Prize Anthology, ‘A Thousand Voices Rising’.
Immediately after campus, Nyambura worked with What’s Good Networks creating structures and inaugural content for their lifestyle channel. Following the expiration of her contract with What’s Good Studios, Nyambura joined Alternative Agency where she is lead content creator; creating blog content for the agency’s brands such as Spire Bank, Internet Solutions, KAPS amongst others. She recently curated profles for Telkom Kenya during their 2017 relaunch from Orange. Additionally, Nyambura edits text and produces content.
Nyambura also works independently as a digital influencer for lifestyle brands.
Nyambura feels that she is currently between her formative stage and recognition in her domain. While she has received recognition from players in her field, her style is still developing. She hopes to work on this by collaborating with fellow writers met in the class.
Vision
Improve the quality of everyday life by telling it as an outstanding story.
Mission
To entertain, inspire and educate her audience through storytelling.
Portfolio
Blog
Performance
Veon Performance
12-18 month plan
1. Launch a subdomain that curates books and the reading culture in Kenya.
2. Flesh out and begin writing her debut anthology.
3. Delve into video as a storytelling medium.
The GoDown Arts Centre Creative Entrepreneurship Course 