Podcasts · Pure Digital Passion with Moses Kemibaro

Episode 183 - From Kenya to Unilever’s Global Stage: The Making of Tito Alai | Part 1

11 Jul 2026 · 59 min · Episode 183

I had initially planned to record one Pure Digital Passion Podcast conversation with Tito Alai. We ended up recording three.

By the end of this first session, we had only managed to cover Tito’s early life, education, rise through East African Industries—now Unilever—and his move to London for international strategic responsibilities.

We had not yet reached Africa Online, Kodak, Celtel, Celpay, One Network, Zain, Mimi Africa, Afreximbank or his current work around African digital identities.

That is the scale of Tito’s story.

In Part 1, we begin in Kirinyaga, where Tito was born while his father, then a District Commissioner, was away responding to a rogue-elephant incident. We move to his childhood on a farm in Muhoroni, boarding school from the age of six and his years at Lenana School, where he embraced academics, sport, leadership and extracurricular life.

Tito explains why he chose humanities despite excelling in mathematics and the sciences, how the death of his father changed the period immediately before university, and why he briefly dropped out of the University of Nairobi because he felt insufficiently challenged.

The second half of the conversation traces his entry into Unilever’s graduate-management program. He recalls choosing East African Industries over Coca-Cola, beginning in field sales, learning how products actually moved through the market and later becoming a brand manager responsible for outcomes without having direct authority over the people needed to deliver them.

We also unpack the extraordinary moment when an informal-looking trip to London turned out to be an interview for an international role. At just 29, Tito moved to London and began coordinating strategic work across Latin America before taking on wider regional and global responsibilities.

This episode is about much more than one person’s early career. It is about how curiosity, responsibility, consumer understanding and a willingness to keep learning can transform the direction of a life.

Time Stamps

• 00:00 Introduction to Tito Alai and the three-part story • 04:38 Why the conversation had to begin with his formative years • 5:26 Born in Kirinyaga and the story behind his African name • 07:02 Farm life, boarding school and early independence • 08:02 Lenana School and the value of trying everything • 09:34 Choosing humanities despite excelling in science • 12:23 Losing his father and taking on family responsibility • 13:31 University of Nairobi and the transition into commerce • 17:05 Why Tito briefly dropped out of university • 19:24 How Unilever’s graduate programme found him • 24:37 Choosing Unilever over Coca-Cola • 25:12 Mentorship and management training at East African Industries • 26:22 Learning the market through field sales • 29:31 Brand management: responsibility without authority • 34:00 The unexpected London opportunity • 39:44 Moving to London at 29 • 40:04 Latin America and the shock of global scale • 47:47 Leaving Unilever to pursue a new learning curve • 56:45 Why one podcast became a three-part series

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)