“Excellence is a habit”: Kethi Kilonzo set to graduate with ACCA after 25 years

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

- Kethi Kilonzo began her ACCA studies during pupillage, long before she became one of Kenya's most prominent lawyers

- The advocate balanced running her late father Mutula Kilonzo's law firm, parenting and years of examinations to reach the finish line

- In March 2025, Kethi topped Kenya and ranked 23rd worldwide in the ACCA Advanced Taxation exam, two decades after her first sitting

- Now she is finally set to graduate at Starthmore University, class of 2026, marking another milestone in her already inspiring education journey

A successful legal career, family responsibilities and years of demanding leadership could have made Kethi Kilonzo abandon her dream.

Instead, she held onto it for 25 years. Today, the Advocate of the High Court and managing partner of one of Kenya’s established law firms is finally set to see that dream through.

Kethi will walk across the graduation stage at Strathmore University to collect her Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification, closing a chapter that opened when she was still doing her pupillage and her parents were footing her tuition fees.

Kethi Kilonzo's journey was only interrupted, never abandoned

Life did not stay still between then and now. The death of her father, the late politician Mutula Kilonzo, thrust her into a leadership role she had not anticipated.

With her brother, Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr, transitioning into politics, Kethi took over the running of the family law firm while simultaneously raising her son.

Speaking in an interview with the Strathmore team, the celebrated lawyer said examinations went on hold. Responsibilities piled up, but she always came back.

"I wasn't running the firm when I started ACCA," she says. "After my dad passed away and my brother joined politics, I found myself running the firm while parenting at the same time."

Even in the early years, her academic standards were clear.

In 2006, she finished as the top student in Kenya in the ACCA Audit examination. Nearly two decades later, in March 2025, she topped Kenya and ranked 23rd worldwide in the ACCA elective Advanced Taxation (ATX-UK) examination.

Furthermore, in December 2025, she was ranked the second ACCA Top Affiliate in Kenya and 68th globally, while also placing first in Kenya and 20th worldwide in Advanced Financial Management (AFM).

What ACCA gave a lawyer that law school could not

For a profession not exactly known for its love of numbers, the qualification has given Kethi an edge she did not expect.

"Lawyers don't like mathematics. Very few lawyers like accounts. Very few lawyers like tax," she says, laughing at the irony. Yet that gap is precisely where the value lies.

She credits ACCA with reshaping how she thinks about running a business, from cash-flow management and financial reporting to human resources and long-term planning.

"If I hadn't done ACCA, managing the firm would have been much harder, if not impossible," she says. "The most important thing is cash flow, not profit."

Through some of her most difficult examination periods, a Strathmore lecturer named Roger Gitonga was a constant source of support. When she scored 38 marks in a mock paper ahead of an August 2019 sitting, it was Gitonga who encouraged her to continue rather than walk away.

"There should be an award for him," she says. "He literally walked this journey with me."

As graduation approaches, Kethi reflects on what the certificate truly represents: not rankings or titles, but proof that a dream does not expire simply because life grows complicated.

"It was worth all the effort and all the tears," she says. "Excellence is a habit. It's not a result. It's a process. Just getting up every day and just keep going."

Source: TUKO.co.ke

Reporting originally appeared via TUKO. Read the full source for additional context.