Destiny: This is what life had in store for me

Rachel Makimei, 36, was not born with any congenital disability. Throughout her childhood and teenage phase however, she was unable to walk or perform even the most minor task for herself, a tragic road accident to blame.

“I was less than five years old when a vehicle we were travelling in collided with an oncoming one along the Kiambu-Nairobi road. I learnt from my mother later on that all the other people in that matatu died except two other people, my mother and I. Both my legs were injured, which confined me to a wheelchair for three years.”

This unfortunate incident suddenly put a check into the cheerful life of young Rachel, and instead of enjoying her youthful life like fellow children, going for physiotherapy sessions became a routine, a routine that would become part of her life for eight consecutive years. Even today, she regularly goes for physiotherapy whenever pain returns.

NOSEDIVE

For a long time, she says, Kijabe Mission Hospital and Kiambu Hospital became her second home. Her worsening condition would see her transferred to Nyeri General Hospital, Nairobi Hospital and Kenyatta National Hospital, in what had become part of her life. But tragedy in her life was far from over.

“I was responding well to treatment, but during one of the physiotherapy sessions, a nurse broke a needle in my thigh while injecting me. This would mark the onset of unspeakable misery in my life,” says Rachel.

Instead of getting better, her health took a nosedive. It was later discovered that one major blood vessel in her right leg had constricted, hindering smooth flow of blood. Strangely, until then, no one knew that a needle was lodged in her body.

“I was unable to walk, and was in and out of school, eventually, my mother was compelled to sell a parcel of land to cater for my medical expenses,” she recollects.

Around this time, her parents separated. Rachel explains that over the years, her mother had taken in several needy children, who she brought up as her own. Rachel’s poor health had triggered a big strain in the family, but it is the attention her mother gave to the foster children that embittered her father the most.

“He had repeatedly asked her to make a choice between the children and our family – my mother ultimately chose the children. As a result, my father kicked us out. It was a trying time in our life.”

Rachel, her mother and her siblings, biological and fostered, moved into a rented house, where they would live until adulthood.

“It was a nightmare when we moved from home. It was difficult to raise money for rent and for food, but mum could not abandon the children she had rescued. Somehow, we managed to keep going.”

It was during her regular physiotherapy sessions at Nairobi Hospital, then 10 years, that doctors discovered the needle that had remained stuck in her thigh for one year, turning her once cheerful childhood into a tumultuous space of utmost suffering and dependence. Rachel had to be operated on to remove the tip of the needle, but her mother could not afford the money required to do the procedure in the hospital.

“I was transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital for the operation, where it was more affordable.”

While the procedure went on without a hitch, the moment she left the theatre, a new realm awaited her. Rachel had to begin a new life walking with the help of crutches.

Months went by, but there were no signs of recovery in sight for the teenager - she had outlived the period the doctor had predicted that she would be able to walk unaided.

“The crutches also injured my armpits since they bore my weight, they were also too heavy for my age, besides, my legs were getting weaker by the day. However, whereas everyone who knew me was convinced that I would not walk again, I was determined to.”

Her worsening condition confined her to the hospital for 13 months, during which she had five more operations.

“One leg would be operated on, after which the other would develop complications, become painful and swell, necessitating an operation as well. Today, I cannot feel my ankles,” she says.

Due to her condition, which required constant attention, Rachel could not attend a boarding school after completing her primary education. She was admitted to a day school instead.

During her third year in high school, amid a litany of problems, and stinging stigma from her fellow students, she was introduced to various humanitarian courses.

“As a co-curricular activity, I undertook a community-based first aid course by the Kenya Red Cross Society. I also studied disaster management. My diligence did not go unnoticed, winning me an opportunity to study intensive training that would enable me to become a trainer of trainers.”

Rachel goes on to say: “While I had never actively participated in any other co-curricular activity before, I took to these initiatives quite seamlessly. I did not have the scantiest inkling that all these courses were preparing me for what I would eventually do.”

In what her mother thought was an audacious move, Rachel began leaving behind one of her crutches and walking with one. Gradually, her legs became stronger.

Albeit with a marked limp, Rachel was now able to walk without the help of one of the sticks. Soon, she got rid of the other crutch. She started using a walking stick instead, which she discarded also with time.

“I did not throw the crutches away because I had healed, rather, because of my strong resolve to walk independently.”

Ultimately, Rachel was able to walk again.

NEVER GIVE UP

“It had taken me many years, but I managed to reclaim the life that an accident had almost robbed from me. I felt new. It was a double delight because I also managed to complete high school, scoring a C+. It was a score of resilience, and of determination,” she reminisces.

At that time, she says, it was an excellent score for her, especially after having been on the receiving end of stigma and mockery throughout her four years for being unable to walk. She even received a letter to join Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

But the glamour and merriment of her conquest in the national exam would soon be eclipsed by anxiety and desperation, which gnawed on her in the downhill race toward the admission day. Lack of school fess now stood between her and college education, for which she had qualified. Even while it was evident that the prospect of joining university was nowhere in sight, Rachel did not give up.

The admission date came and passed. Weeks went by and came months. It was now clear the chance had slipped through her fingers. Aggrieved but still confident that a miracle would happen, Rachel decided to enrol for short courses to fill the void of time, time which, she says, seemed to be on an oppressive standstill.

She recounts, “I studied a certificate course in Early Childhood Development and Education, after which I took a diploma course. I even studied computer and theology. I had studied so many courses, that I wondered what I would do with all the qualifications. My principal goal was to go to university, but circumstances would not permit. I had to accept this unpleasant fact.”

After 14 years of waiting to join the university, Rachel, through well-wishers’ support and her mother’s little savings, was able to raise enough money for admission to the university, upon which she went to claim her admission place at JKUAT, only to be informed that her place had been given to someone else.

“I was turned away. Essentially, the school was right. I tried my luck at university after university, unsuccessfully, but eventually, I was accepted at Egerton University’s Laikipia Campus to study a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Development and Education.”

But even as she joined university, she had no idea where the school fees to complete her studies would come from.

“Sometimes my mother would give me Sh5,000 which was to cater for my bus fare to school and back home, shopping, and part of the school fees.”

After four years of struggling and fighting to keep her dream of getting a university education on course, Rachel completed her studies. She had no hope of graduating though.

“I had a school fees balance of Sh298,000, so graduation for me seemed impossible.”

Through friends and well-wishers however, Rachel managed to raise Sh115,000, which she presented to the administration with pleas to be allowed to graduate.

“When the graduation day finally came, together with thousands of other graduands, I was seated in the graduation square in the Main Campus in Nyahururu, yet I was unsure they would read my name. They did! It was a dream come true.”

Rachel, who has the dean of the Faculty of Education at the institution to thank for this, admits that it was a shocker to find out that she had scored a First Class Honours.

“It was so overwhelming. I had suffered so much that I no longer cared what I scored as long as I graduated, so I was ecstatic when I found out that I was right there at the top.”

The university withheld her degree certificate though, until she had cleared the debt she owed the school. As her colleagues looked forward to the next phase of their life, though happy she had cleared one hurdle, there was also the fact that she had no degree certificate to show for her four years in college, therefore joining the corporate world was out of question for her.

“Interestingly, the lack of that certificate did not trouble me as it should have; my heart was slowly getting drawn elsewhere: taking care of needy children. I had grown fond of charitable work having grown up observing my mother help children that no one wanted. As such, joining my mother in her quest to rescue and take care of such children was an easy decision for me to make.”

Since 2014, Rachel has been working as a charity worker, sourcing money and other kinds of support from individuals, churches and various organisations to support the childrens’ home that she runs.

Rachel is involved with the administrative role of running the institution, located off the Nairobi-Nakuru highway in Kikuyu town, while her mother, Margaret Wambui, 56, conducts the day-to-day activities of the institution. Makimei Children’s Home is home to 63 children, 32 of who are in school-going, with the youngest only five months old.

Through the years, Rachel has been able to establish contacts with many people, one of them being Art Livingstone, a US national, who supports the facility with Sh30,000 every month, besides supporting her other charity causes outside the facility.

“Taking care of needy families and helpless children has become my heart’s desire. My day starts at 4.30am. My mother, our staff, and I wake up to prepare the children that go to school early - the first group leaves home at 5.20am, and by 7.30am, the last group has left for school.”

Once the school-going children leave home, Rachel and her three paid assistants and volunteers who occasionally visit the facility set to work, bathing the toddlers, feeding and rocking them to sleep depending on their needs. Shopping for food and milk, cleaning the children’s rooms and washing their clothes follows, activities that usually take three to six hours.

“Lunch has to be prepared in time since the babies must be fed at 1pm. In the evening after the children return from school, we bathe the younger ones and assist them with homework. We later go for our daily evening devotion. Afterwards we have supper together, using this time to find out how the children’s day was.

Thereafter the children go to bed. It’s a mentally and physically wearying routine, but nothing gives me more joy than to wake up every day knowing that these children have a place to call home.

Makimei Children’s Home is registered as a charitable children institution under the Ministry of East African Community, Labour and Social Protection. Most of the children in the centre are taken there by the police through the Kikuyu law courts in conjunction with the Children’s Office in Kikuyu.

While the facility has been running for 10 years now since it was officially registered, it has not been without challenges.

“Our support comes from well-wishers, the local community and volunteers. We occasionally receive European and American students on holiday in Kenya who help us to clean, cook and babysit the babies. These are of most help to us due to our problem of understaffing. School fees for those in high school and college, infant formula and food are our main challenges.”

Rachel cites negligence by some parents as one of the main problem that she has observed working in charity.

“Our facility is well-known around here, and so some parents abandon their children at our home when they are unable to care for them.

The police also ask us to keep some of the children they have rescued as the state seeks custody for them, but they never come back for them. As a result, we often have an acute shortage of resources, but must keep them since they have nowhere else to go.”

“Sometimes we are brought babies that are only a couple of hours old - children that have been abandoned in dumpsites and in hospitals. Some are sick while others have disabilities. We take them in and care for them. It touches us to see them recover and lead normal lives like other children living with their families.”

Two of the girls who were brought up at the centre have since completed school, one is a civil engineer while another one is a beautician.

“It is joyous to see these children who were once so hopeless able to get an education and later a job that enables them to be self-sufficient. Some of these children are brought to us in such a poor state, we are sure they will not survive. And yet they do.”

Even as Rachel finds pride from her training in diverse fields, she reveals that she is much more at home in charity than working for her personal fulfilment. The knowledge and skills acquired in college, she explains, have not been in vain, they have come in handy in running the institution.

“To efficiently look after our large family and the many visitors who come to see us requires not just hard work, but an ability to plan ahead. I immensely enjoy what I do.”