Eva Muraya

Interview Summary

Eva Muraya describes the inception and development of her successful screen printing and embroidery business in Kenya, which she funded with her own savings, as well as her later forays into the branding, marketing, and public relations fields. She describes her responses to the challenges of accessing capital, high interest rates, and institutional turbulence, especially the political, economic, and humanitarian crisis in 2007. Muraya is particularly revealing about challenges of being a female entrepreneur in Kenya, and discusses in detail the work she and others have done to create an environment more accepting of female-run companies in the country.

It’s really up to the leadership of the business to define the moral code. At Color Creations, and, in the other businesses that I have set up since, we do not engage in corruption, period.

Download Interview Transcript

Additional Resources

• “Eva Muraya, the Kenyan Entrepreneur With a Heart of Gold,” Konnect Africa, February 6, 2013

• Up Close and Personal with Eva Muraya, K24TV, October 17, 2017.

• Interview with Poverty Cure Voices, http://www.povertycure.org/voices/eva-muraya/

• Short video file of part of this interview available at Baker Library Historical Collections, histcollref+hbs.edu. Harvard ID holders can access the video above.

Interview Citation Format

"Interview with Eva Muraya, interviewed by Kalpana Jain, Nairobi, Kenya, November 1, 2013, Creating Emerging Markets Project, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School, http://www.hbs.edu/creating-emerging-markets/."