24-Year-Old Kenyan Recognised At UK Beauty Pageant

A Kenyan woman living in the United Kingdom (UK) is among 21 finalists in this year’s Miss Africa Great Britain beauty pageant.

Loice Tabitha Okuru is a 24-year-old Kenyan woman living in the UK. The firstborn in a family of three siblings was born in Kyuso (Kitui County) but raised in Nairobi.

She went to the United Kingdom to pursue an LLB in Law with International Relations at the University of Sussex and has been residing there ever since. 

While in Kenya, Tabitha was involved in quite a few extracurriculars involving the environment, having begun in 2014 by participating in the Golden Climate International Environmental Olympiad national and international rounds, where she both won silver medals.

Miss Africa Great Britain 2022 finalist Loice Tabitha Okuru. /INSTAGRAM

She went ahead to represent Kenya in the 2014 INESPO (International Environment & Sustainability Project Olympiad), the largest sustainability Olympiad in Europe where she got an honourable mention and an encouragement award.

Tabitha later participated in INESPO 2015 and 2016, winning the third prize (Bronze medal) in both Olympiads. These two bronze awards were and are still very dear to her because, in 2015 and 2016 out of 45 countries and over 200 projects, she was the only Kenyan and East African to finish in the top three, flying the Kenyan flag while she received both her awards.

Besides being a sustainability enthusiast, she has been heavily involved with matters concerning policymaking.

During her high-school years, she actively participated in the East African Model United Nations and the African Leadership Model African Union. In university, she participated in the Warwick Economic summit (2021) hosted by Warwick University and took part in the Sussex Model United Nations as the ambassador to Bangladesh.

After university Tabitha has been involved in various projects with one of her proudest moments being the invitation, she got to actively participate in Europe day 2022 at the European Parliament in London.

"On a normal day, Loice will presumably be reading a book, or watching superhero movies or historic documentaries.

"She is very vocal when it comes to matters affecting the African continent and would call herself a Pan-African, hence the reason why she decided to take part in Miss Africa Great Britain 2022. Her main motto is: as an African Woman, you need to showcase your Beauty, Intelligence and Culture," a press release seen by Viral Tea describes her.

After the pageant, Tabitha is planning on starting a charity organization in Kenya that will be based on promoting sustainability using creativity. This platform will enable children and teenagers to showcase their creativity while getting help and funding from the charity.

A lot of Kenyan children have incredible ideas but lack support and facilitation, making them lose hope for a brighter future. Her vision is to give them the hope they need so that they create a sustainable and better Kenya.

The Miss Africa GB pageant was founded in 2011 by Dele Onabowu, with the sole purpose of giving young African girls born or living in the United Kingdom a platform to showcase not only their beauty but most importantly their culture, talent, and creativity.

The winner becomes a goodwill ambassador for Miss Africa Great Britain, charged with carrying out their platform’s mission of helping mankind and making the world a better place. Over the last ten years, their Queens have devoted their time to charity work in the UK and Africa.

In fulfilling the beauty pageant’s mission of charity and giving back to the community as they await the pronouncement of the winner in the month of November, Tabitha has been raising funds to help those affected by inflation in London.

Models at the Miss Africa Great Britain Beauty Pageant. /FILE

The pageant is marked in different ways namely;

1. A fundraiser in which the one who raises the most funds shall be declared as Miss Charity and get an automatic top 10.
2. Public voting, which is currently ongoing. For this, the person with the most votes will be known as Miss Popularity and gets to the top five automatically or has two extra points.
3. Marking based on proactivity that is; ticket sales and event promotion
4. Marking by the jury which happens on the Grande Finale that takes place in London, on Friday, November 4, 2022.