About Regina Williams

Regina Williams – Author of Blessed Struggles.

Blessed struggles is  my autobiography: My Journey from Extreme Poverty in Kenya to Professional and Political Success in Great Britain.

I am Regina Williams, a motivational speaker, FGM survivor, and the first Black Kenyan woman elected to public office in London. My story begins in the red hills of Kisii, Kenya, winds through the streets of Rabat and Casablanca, and leads to London, where I arrived pregnant, penniless, and holding nothing but a dream.

Inspired by the Swahili saying “maisha ni kupambana” (life is a struggle), Regina’s autobiography Blessed Struggles is a powerful account of how one woman turned silence into strength, poverty into purpose, and hardship into history. From walking barefoot on muddy roads in rural Kenya to becoming a voice on global stages — it is a journey of resilience, grit, and personal transformation.

“I arrived in the UK with only $50, no family, and a baby on the way — but I carried a dream bigger than my fear.”
“Education was my escape. Speaking is now my weapon.”
“From sleeping on a cold floor in Kenya to standing on global stages — this is what resilience looks like.”

In 1997, I was the only woman in an MSc course in Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Engineering, and Knowledge Acquisition at Middlesex University — a lone Black woman in a class of nine. It was a bold act of courage. A quiet rewriting of boundaries. That moment, too, was history.

In April 2024, I created history again. Blessed Struggles ranked #3 in Amazon’s Top 100 British Political Autobiographies, standing beside Sir Winston Churchill. But this was more than a personal milestone — it was a victory for Kenya, for Britain, and indeed for East African and global history.

“I didn’t have food — but I turned hunger into fuel for success. I studied relentlessly until my education was globally recognised, and now I use my voice — a global voice — to remind the world I existed, and I mattered.”

But this is only a glimpse.

The full story — of surviving Female Genital Mutilation, of battling loneliness, racism, and cultural silence, of being overlooked and underestimated — lives inside Blessed Struggles. My journey is guided by what I now call Regina’s Framework of Resilience: a mindset built on belief, perseverance, dignity, and purpose.

Today, I use my voice to ignite others — power girls, single mothers, immigrants, students, and dreamers across the world. I stand for girls’ education, freedom from cultural oppression, and the strength of women who refuse to be silenced.

“I was not born to break. I was born to rise.”