Kanze Dena is a force to reckon with. A woman whose rise from the bottom to the top deserves an ode from us.
Kanze got married last weekend to a communications specialist called Nick Mararo.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane through Kanze Dena’s life. Kanze’s full name is Kellen Beatrice Kanze Dena. She was born in 1979 to a single mother called Jane Dena. Kanze has four sisters and one brother.
Kanze attended St Mathews Kianjokoma Boarding School in Embu, then joined Kyeni Girls High School, still in Embu County.
Kanze has spoken about suffering from low self-esteem. She worked as a waitress after she completed Form 4. She told Maisha Magic East’s “Stori Yangu” show: “Nilikuwa nachonga viasi vya chips, halafu sasa nikavuka counter kufanya kazi ya waiter.”
Kanze then got pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby but the man later dumped her.
Her mother enrolled her at a secretarial college, not knowing she was pregnant. Her mother only found out her daughter had been pregnant after she delivered a baby girl, Natasha,at Pumwani Maternity Hospital.
Her daughter passed on 3 months later, plunging the Kanze into a mire of depression. She then unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by suffocating herself with a polythene bag. After that, she decided to join NPC (Nairobi Pentecostal Church) as she tried to deal with the depression.
In an interview with a Hot 96’s “A story a Day”, she revealed that:
I WENT INTO SOME KIND OF DEPRESSION. I FELT UNWORTHY FOR ALMOST A YEAR, I WAS BATTLING SELF-ESTEEM ISSUES, SEEING LIKE GOD DID WANT ME TO CONTINUE BEING NATASHA’S MOTHER. I WAS VERY HURT BY THE INCIDENT, AFTER THAT, I CAME BACK TO NAIROBI AND I WAS ABLE TO GET ADMISSION TO STUDY MASS COMMINATION.
Kanze has stated before that joining college gave her the opportunity to go back to church where she jump-started her life again.
She was able to join the church worship team and got pregnant again. She then thought that she had miscarried. That would prove to be false as she, later on, found out that she was 7 months pregnant. At this time her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer, even slipping into a coma.
This second pregnancy was successful and she got a son she named Amani. She then tried to commit suicide a second time by slitting her wrist. Her mother inadvertently stopped her from fully executing the plan when she rushed Kanze’s crying infant to her.
Sadly her mother would not get the opportunity to see her grandson Amani become a man, as Jane died of colon cancer complications after his first birthday.
Afterward she went to Citizen TV and became a news anchor and then news director at the Royal Media Services TV Station. She worked as a news anchor and news director for Citizen TV anchoring Citizen Nipashe and Citizen Wikendi.
In 2013, she attempted to commit suicide again at the Coast, wanting to jump into the ocean but she says God saved her.
Well the story gets better as Kanze made it through the tough times.
On June 5, 2018, Kanze Dena was appointed the Deputy State House spokesperson in far-reaching changes made in the Presidential Strategic Communication Unit.
In October, she was then elevated later to the job of State House Spokesperson and head of the Presidential Strategic and Communication Unit.
The mother of one has since overcome her depression and today she is proud of who she is. After a lot of soul searching and digging deep into God’s word, she has been able to gain strength.
The cherry on the cake for the mother of one is that she tied the knot this past weekend, getting married to Nick Mararo, at her rural home in Kwale County on Friday. This woman is surely a testament to the old saying by Thomas A Edison:
I HAVE NOT FAILED. I’VE JUST FOU