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The inspiring career journey of two Muslim women who founded a thriving law practice By George Marenya By Amos Wachira In the bustling city of Nairobi, a small office hums with purpose. Here, Ludfia Maalim and Kheira Farah, co-founders of Farah & Maalim Advocates, pore over case files, their hijabs contrasting with sharp blazers. Their mission? To empower people through fast, efficient and cost effective legal services—one client at a time. Farah and Maalim Advocates is a tale of two young women brought together by a giant dream. In the beginning though, their circumstances and interests would not be more different. Soon after completing her O Levels, Kheira Farah was totally in love with business, she kept her ear to the ground about financial trends and what was moving the markets at any one time. Because of her love for the business world, she really wanted to plunge herself into the world of entrepreneurship right after her secondary school education. Her greatest mentor who is also her uncle had other ideas though. To him she was a perfect fit for law school, no amount of protesting would dissuade him. And so she was set for university, on one condition that if she fails the exams, she will not continue with her studies and would opt for business. When she joined Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and technology’s law school, she had made peace with her uncle’s choice of law. “I reasoned that a law firm was like a business, so I was good to go. I immediately loved the course as I was excelling in exams.” She says. After joining the law school, she met and became fast friends with Ludfia Maalim, who was also pursuing a law degree at the institution. After graduating with a bachelor of laws degree in 2020, kheira wanted to join the NGO world, instead of proceeding to the Kenya School of Law. Again her uncle would hear none of it. "But only ten percent of Kenya Law School graduates make it," she lamented. "Well," replied her uncle, "You will be among the ten percent. Who says you cannot be?" he told her. And that way, kheira was destined for the Kenya Law School, where her mettle and ambition to be a lawyer would be thoroughly tested. The duo’s “lightbulb moment” came during their oral exams at the Kenya School of Law. Kheira says, “Recognizing how tough the oral exams were, I told ludfia that if we make it to the end, we should vow to found our own law firm, Farah and Maalim Advocates. For Ludfia, the road to Law School and a Law Office was made of more rough pebbles. Having excelled in their academics, she wanted to pursue any course that revolved around gender and women empowerment. After completing her O levels in 2015, Ludfia went back to her native Matarajio Primary School, her former school to greet her former teachers. That’s when they told her they had a vacancy for teachers and she bought into the idea, rolling her sleeves and taking up chalk and books to teach grade four, five and six pupils. Her favorite pupils were in class four. With her love for the pupils still burning inside, she approached one of her mentors and told her how she wanted to follow her passion-teaching. The mentor gave her a reality check telling her that in this country "Passion does not pay," concluding, "Do not do anything merely for passion." So when the admission letter to join university came along, Ludfia was off to Murang’a University for a course in Maths and Economics. Not contented with the course, she did not last long as she immediately embarked on researching and applying to various Law schools to pursue law, her newfound course. Ludfia’s father, a retired Chief wanted her to be a banker. The thought of walking into a bank and finding his daughter minding peoples’ money was the old man’s dream job for Ludfia. It took quite some time for him to come around. While her parents thought she was busy studying at Murang’a University, Ludfia was moving around law schools in Nairobi looking for a vacancy. Her first stop was in Karen, at the JKUAT Law school. She paid for the admission fee and left. She then approached her brother for more cash to fund her endeavor. The following day, she approached her dad, who was shell-shocked. he told her to give him time to think about it as it was a family matter. When she finally got admitted at the Karen campus, she vowed to do her best, at least to appease her father. At the university, she met Kheira and they became best of friends. Four years later, they graduated and were admitted in the bar in March of 2023, one of their defining moments. Employment beckoned and as fate goes, the two women went their separate ways, each getting gainfully employed in plum law firms. Even as they worked in different parts of Nairobi, they kept in touch and kept their dream of opening their own law firm alive. After each of them had gathered enough work experience they met again in December 2023 and decided to get serious about opening a Law firm. That is how Farah and Maalim Advocates, situated in a bespoke and stylish office at the 4th floor of St. Ellis House came to be. But launching a private practice was never going to be a walk in the park. While Kheira really wanted to be her own boss, Ludfia was comfortable in her job which provided her with enough perks. “I had gotten comfortable at the law firm. The money was good, and I was looking forward to a pay-slip every month.” “Kheira told me that I should desist from getting comfortable as I could be replaced at any given moment. I thought it was just another quote. Then it hit me.” Not one to break their vow at the KSL, she accepted that the time had come for them to start and grow their own firm. But when rubber met the tarmac, they realized first hand that they did not have enough resources to establish the kind of law practice they desired. There were no funds for that. Unbowed, they put together any savings that they had and asked a friend to help them get an office space in the CBD. “We had a name but no cash. Nonetheless, we vowed to do it,” says Kheira. Once they had secured an office space, the next step was to partition it. They were halfway through the partitioning process when the cash they had ran out. Not one to be discouraged by setbacks, Ludfia approached her mom for a small loan. She was given Kshs 300 000 to complete the partitions. As for Kheira, she couldn’t get any loans from family members as they all knew she was working as a lawyer at a big law firm. They started with the bare minimum. In 2024, they opened their doors to clients, provide a wide range of legal services. These include, property and real estate, commercial and corporate law, banking, finance and tax laws, dispute resolution and debt recovery, family law and succession. Others are labor relations law, intellectual property law and insurance law. A Meeting of Minds Both daughters of Kenyan-Somali families, they witnessed firsthand how women and youth in their community grappled with legal voids. Navigating Kenya’s plural legal system, which intertwines civil, customary, and Islamic (Kadhi) courts, is no small feat. Early on, skepticism met their youth and gender. “Some clients asked, ‘Where’s the real lawyer?’” Kheira laughs. Undeterred, they leveraged their deep cultural understanding to bridge gaps. Challenges and Triumphs Funding remains a hurdle. Bootstrapping their firm, they are keen on organic growth, adding one client at a time. For any new lawyer, getting clients is a big challenge. For a start, there are many lawyers so competing with established firms for clients is a tough undertaking. Gender challenges The duo admits that sometimes gender plays a significant role in the career. A good example is when dealing with patriarchal communities who believe that men should be the ones to lead. When looking for lawyers, some get disappointed to find two Muslim women handling their case, while their expectations were that men could be the ones to do their bidding. Like any other business, challenges abound, but the duo deals with them accordingly. Yet their impact is undeniable: banks, financial institutions, NGOs, construction companies, private hospitals and property management companies form part of their clientele. The Road Ahead Looking forward, Ludfia and Kheira dream of expanding their team to reach more Kenyans. As dusk settles over Nairobi, the two pore over their diaries before calling it a day. Their journey, Kheira reflects, is about more than legal victories: “It’s about showing the world that young Muslim women can lead—and lift others as we rise.”

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