Kenyan woman to 'link' air force to public in UK

Royal Airforce Honorary Air Commodore Veronica Moraa Pickering with her husband Roy Pickering at Organic Market in Karen, Nairobi. [Dennis Dikera]

Veronica Moraa Pickering, 60, rattles off the things she has been best at like someone rehearsing for a play. Growing up, she was the best-dressed, best at attending school and best athlete.

Recognition is not unfamiliar to her, be it triviality of whose uniform was the smartest, or who ran the fastest.

Yet this was due to the poverty she grew up in as daughter of a single mother and Kenyan immigrant to the United Kingdom.

Her illiterate mother pushed her to school. "She just wanted us to go to school every day," Moraa said of her mother. "I hardly ever missed a day of school. I even got awards for being the best attendee."

Moraa, a married mother of two, has lived in the UK for more than five decades. Although, by her achievements, a pick of the bunch of Kenyans in Britain, she remained largely unknown until last year when she was named the Honorary Air Commodore for No 504 (County of Nottingham) Squadron.

“When I was asked to take up the position, I was really unsure, because I didn't think I fitted as the typical image of somebody who would be a black woman in the RAF (Royal Air Force) because I have not seen that image before,” Moraa said.

At the RAF, Moraa said she saw other black people and her perception of the air force changed.

“I feel as if I am representing Kenya. I'm not officially, of course. But every time I walk out and do anything as a black woman, and in these prominent positions, I feel as if I'm representing Kenya. I have a Kenyan passport. I can't be here if it wasn't for the fact that I'm Kenyan, right? I come from Kenya. I'm a daughter of Kenya. And if I walk out in the streets, I am Kenyan. When I walk out in the UK, I'm a black woman,” said Moraa.

She wears many hats. She is an executive coach, mother, and partnership specialist.

She also has a safeguarding background and is passionate about families.

“So my work is people, whether in uniform or not. So I can't separate any of that. Everything merges into my interest and enthusiasm for development of individuals,” she said.

The role is designed to strengthen the bond between the military unit and the individual and promote the role of the air force among the public.

She has been a social worker, almost all her life and has worked as an international child protection consultant for the United Nations even in Kenya where she volunteered for Unicef in the aftermath of the 2008 post-election violence.

Moraa likes being back in uniform. She stands out in it like she did when she was 10 and dazzled her teachers and fellow pupils.

“I remember clearly that school uniform made me feel proud. That was the only uniform I've worn until I wore the RAF uniform,” she said.

When her mother divorced, she had to work in a factory.

“She had nothing, and then she had to have State help. So we had free school dinners, and we had free school uniforms. We even got some money from the State to help pay for our food,” she said.

Her journey, as she puts it, “began under the skies” in colonial Kenya.

Her parents moved to the UK with her and her sister. Her first memory of London was the biting cold and the blanket she was wrapped in.