From the Prison Gate to Global Platforms: Why I’m Saying Yes to the Roxbourgh Professional MBA



There are moments in life when everything stands still — and you wonder whether anything good can ever rise from the ashes. I know that space intimately. I’ve lived it.

Years ago, I walked out of the gates of a maximum  prison facility in Kenya — not just physically free, but determined to heal, to rebuild, and to become. What followed was a long journey of facing shame, confronting pain, and slowly rediscovering the woman God created me to be. It hasn’t been easy. But every step has been drenched in grace.

This month, I received news that stopped me in my tracks — I have been selected to pursue a Professional MBA with Roxbourgh Institute, Switzerland. This opportunity is humbling. The Professional MBA is typically reserved for founders of established ventures — and yet, I was selected. Not because I had the most resources or visibility, but purely by God’s grace. Me. A formerly incarcerated woman. A daughter. A mother. A mentor. A leader.

And yes — a fierce believer in second chances.

Why This Matters

This isn’t just a personal milestone — it is a symbol of what is possible when systems of power are confronted with truth, and when stories of pain are turned into movements of purpose.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of participating in some of the most powerful feminist leadership spaces across Africa:

Decolonial Feminist Leadership Training – Tanzania - (Sponsored by Coady Institute, St. Xavier University Canada) 

Feminist Movement Building School by JASS and the Feminist Centre for Racial Justice (FCRJ)

Community-led trainings and ministry in prisons and safe houses

Each of these spaces shaped me. They gave language to the fire in my belly and tools to transform that fire into action, healing, and advocacy.

But this MBA — this is something new. Something bold. It brings together my passion for restorative justice, faith-rooted leadership, and community transformation, and wraps it in the strategic, financial, and operational skills needed to scale impact.

What This MBA Represents

The Roxbourgh Professional MBA focuses on helping social impact leaders structure their vision for financial sustainability, while offering the unique opportunity to launch your own Professional Higher Education Academy.

For me, this is a divine alignment. Through my work as Facilitator of the Ufunuo Leadership Program, I have journeyed with hundreds of women impacted by imprisonment — witnessing the raw beauty of transformation, the ache of silence, and the power of rediscovered identity.

This MBA is not just about building my resume.

It’s about building platforms of liberation,

breaking cycles of invisibility,

and saying to every woman, like Jesus did in Luke 13:12 —

Woman, thou art loosed.

Next Steps

I am entering this next season with three words etched on my heart:

Courage. Wisdom. Multiplication.

I will use this MBA to strengthen the Ufunuo model and expand it beyond borders.

I will design  faith-inspired, feminist-rooted leadership courses that equip women to rise — from prisons, from pain, from patriarchy.

I will continue to say yes — to learning, to healing, to becoming.

To Every Sister on the Journey…

If you’re reading this and you’ve ever felt like your story disqualifies you, or that your past is too heavy to carry into the future — let me say this:

You are not your history.

You are the vessel of a bigger story. One that is still being written.

Keep going.

Keep becoming.

And when the doors open — walk through with your head held high.

With love and courage,

Cyprine Omollo

Facilitator, Ufunuo Leadership Program

[LinkedIn Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyprine-omollo-6b22b1159/)



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