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Minne is a Nairobi-born actress and reality TV star who broke out on The Real Housewives of Nairobi Season 2 and now returns as Mariah in Single Kiasi Season 4.
She’s a business owner with a foot in construction, a wife of ten years to Lugz, and a hands-on mum. Candid and sharp, she speaks openly about ambition, marriage, and her journey through loss to a “miracle” baby.
Minne doesn’t blink when the label is thrown her way. “I’m a gold digger,” she says, almost daring you to misunderstand.
I’m digging gold, not dirt. Poverty? No thanks. I like my life a certain way. I want to drive a German machine, and I will drive a German machine. Period. Full stop.
It’s a provocation, yes, but also a philosophy. It’s not about greed, it’s about standards, matching effort with effort, ambition with accountability.
Minne Kariuki who plays Mariah in Single Kiasi
She arrives this season with the kind of visibility that reality TV confers and scripted drama refines.
On screen, Mariah is still the quick-witted siren, but now she’s navigating life after Dixon (Jimmy Gathu), testing her independence and a new relationship.
Off-screen, Minne is balancing brutal call times, a growing business portfolio, including construction, and motherhood.
“People think acting is all glitz and glam,” she says.
Trust me, it takes serious discipline. Sometimes I’m on set at 5 a.m. and wrapping at midnight. And I’m still a mum, a lactating mum at that. Whether it’s business or acting, without discipline and consistency, you fail.
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When quitting felt easier than staying
Four years ago, quitting felt easier than staying. “I was this close to walking away,” she admits. “The money just wasn’t making sense, and I couldn’t see the value.”
What pulled her back wasn’t fame, it was family. “My husband, Lugz, has been my rock… When I landed Single Kiasi, I told God, ‘This better be it.’ Four years later, here I am.”
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Minne Kariuki who plays Mariah in Single Kiasi
If Season 4 marks a career high, it is also tinged by a personal low. After a miscarriage, Minne says the path to her “miracle” son changed her.
“Loss strips away the filters,” she reflects. “Before stepping on set this time, I felt softer, more open, more willing to show the raw parts of myself. It enabled me to play Mariah as someone who fights for her friendships. I don’t want to lose the people who matter.”
That vulnerability threads the new episodes, an emotional counterpoint to the glamour fans expect.
Beyond sponsors and wababaz
It also changes how we see Mariah. In earlier seasons, she was linked to sponsors and wababaz, glamorous, transactional, and always under judgment
Now, Minne hints at a pivot. “Viewers will finally see her talented side,” she says.
Mariah’s a natural-born marketer; she gets digital content creation like no one else. This season, she’s out here taking up space and owning it. Expect to see her in an office, doing her thing, proving she doesn’t need anyone to prop her up.
It’s character development with intent, a woman who was once defined by who paid her bills, now learning to handle her own.
Still, there’s playfulness. The season pushes Minne into territory she hadn’t filmed before.
She said the season gets hot and that filming the intimate scenes was tough. When asked for an emoji representing Season 4, she picked the eggplant and laughed.
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Minne Kariuki who plays Mariah in Single Kiasi
Speaking up about infertility
Minne’s plain-spoken honesty extends beyond money talk. Her openness about infertility, the grief, the waiting, the miracle is part testimony, part public service.
“When you are real and authentic, people believe you,” she says.
There’s no shame in saying, ‘I’ve been through loss,’ or ‘I’ve struggled with this condition.’ You have no idea how many women you’re holding by the hand just by telling your truth. Vulnerability isn’t weakness; it’s strength.
In an industry that often rewards polish over candour, she is determined to model the opposite.
So call her a diva if you like, the shade, the timing, the punchlines are part of the brand.
But listen closely and you’ll hear a builder of businesses, of roles, of a family that steadied her when the cheques were thin and the days were long.
She wears the “gold-digger” tag the way some wear designer labels, on purpose. Not as a scandal, but as standard.