(Angela Wahu is the founder and CEO of ChokoraCulture, an outfit helping street families)
Edna (not her real name) a mother of one, knows not the joy of Christmas. She has been living in the streets of Nairobi for three years.
In a short encounter with her, she plaintively narrates her tribulations which began after her boyfriend’s tragic death in Dobley, Somalia a few years back.
Together with her two-year-old son, they lived in one of the barracks as her soldier boyfriend fought to restore peace in Somalia through the Linda Nchi initiative.
One day though, she sadly recalls, she received news that her boyfriend returned to his base in Dobley, Somalia feeling weakly.
“One morning, there were reports of three officers found dead near the city of Dobley. I thought, “No it can’t be him. He’s invincible” because I always thought that he was,” she says.
“Then came the knock at the door. Only one officer came bearing the news I feared the most. “He’d be flown back home in a coffin.” I just broke down with my son in my arms."
As if the gods had conspired against her, she received a vacation notice from the barracks a week after her boyfriend’s funeral although with a promise for compensation which has never come to be. Left with no other place to go, she moved back to her mother’s house.
She shelved her ambitions to further her education and started doing menial jobs to support herself. But as fate would have it, her mother suffered a sudden stroke and she could not come to terms with this.
Life became hard because treatment was expensive. Edna doubled her effort hoping her compensation by the Ministry of Defence as promised would materialise, all to her imagination.
However, she recounts, “She was gone in two months. It all happened too fast. I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye. She closed her eyes for an afternoon nap and she never woke up again."
A month after her mother’s funeral which was again, hit by a hard cash-crunch, the landlord evicted her together with her son.
Yet again, she had to contend with her second eviction. “I tried to reach out to my family members but no one is willing to deal with a teenager and her son. I suddenly had no more connections. I was actually all alone,” Edna states remorsefully.
She moved to shelter for the homeless where she met all types of social misfits – alcoholics, prostitutes, criminals, ex-jailbirds and the like.
For safety reasons, she got a boyfriend at the shelter because with him, you cannot be raped or your child harmed.
Edna later got hooked to heroin and glue to a point she lost her track of her son. She once saw the little boy sniff glue.
It is at this point that she decided to leave the shelter for the homeless and start a new life in the streets where she has been living since 2015.
“It’s not easy. I’m constantly depressed, I wake up in the dark thinking I’m going mad, but I have to stay strong. We are a number of mothers out here and we always remind each other to stay strong,” remarks Edna adding this is her third Christmas in the streets.
She now feeds on leftovers dumped in bins within the city just to live one more day.
Family Wellness Centre - Kenya together with other well-wishers have a plan to donate foodstuff and clothes to those living in the streets.
Feel free to drop off any of your Christmas donations to:
Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC),
Lower Ground Floor LG9- James Kimani Githongo's office,
or
Safaricom – Lipa Na Mpesa Pay Bill Number – 522522 Account Number – 1204222878
Lipa Na Mpesa Buy Goods and Services Till Number – 529161 or
Family Wellness Centre Kenya, KCB Bank, Account Number – 1204222878 – KICC Branch.
You can also contact +254 724 025115 or +254 722 715424.