Woman pipeline welder takes every challenge in her stride in rigorous job

Chepkoech Chumo, a pipeline welder with Kenya Pipeline Company, at her workstation. [David Njaaga, Standard]

I dashed away as if possessed, fearing for my eyes as dazzling sparks emanating from a young woman’s handiwork with the intensity of a thousand stars threatened to render my world permanently dark.

Miffed by the scenario, I could not help admiring the lady doing her thing calmly and diligently behind a façade of protective gears. “Not using them is tantamount to inviting blindness, skin disorders and myriad other problems,” she says of the gears covering her from toe to pate.