Born in Marakwet, Kenya, her international debut came as a junior runner at the 1997 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where she was one of six Kenyan youngsters in the top ten of the junior women's race. She featured again on the team at the 1998 edition, having won the junior trials, and she came seventh to help Kenya to the team silver medal. She was the winner of the 1999 Kenyan National Cross Country Championships in Nairobi. She failed to take this domestic form to the 1999 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, however, as she was the fifth Kenyan finisher and placed 16th overall in the women's long race.