Volunteering caused me some pain but doubled my joy

"In the year 2010, I was working in a salon at Free Area township in Nakuru County where I got to witness the many young job seekers who would be turned away by prospective employers, even for casual works because of lacking one vital document, the national identity card.

Young, single, but desperate mothers, some hardly in their twenties and nursing babies, presented a pitiable picture even underselling their worth out of distress to be employed but what stood between them and employment was the identity card. I got curious and began engaging the job seekers on why they had failed to secure the cards and their stories were always the same. They did not have pesa za macho (bribes) that were being demanded at the registry of person offices.

I had previously lost my ID and I paid Sh500 chai (bribe) at the office of a local administration to be issued with a replacement. My anger was born out of that experience, and I could understand their frustrations. Mind you some were straight from school and any casual work was their starting point to their financial journey. 

One time I secured casual work for ten young people at a construction site, and as I availed them at the site, only two were taken in and the rest sent packing. The latter did not have the vital identity documents but were all brimming with energy to do anything. The contractor would not hear about employing the eight on empathy grounds and stuck to his guns. I asked the eight young men to go to the local administration offices to register for the document, only to hear from them the next day that they were being asked to pay Sh300 per person 'facilitation fee'.

I decided to step in and help in their registration process with the local administration offices – and that is how my volunteerism began. I became the go-to person.

I split my time between working at the salon and my volunteerism. It was a pleasure to see the youths getting identity cards free of charge. 

Political muddling

Little did I know what I took as a passion, even when it was not paying, would be dragged into the dirty world of politics and cause me sleepless nights. I helped a young man to secure an ID and he was made to pay Sh300 'issuance fee'. He gave out a Sh1000 banknote and expected a change of Sh700, which was not given to him. He alerted me and together we went to the registry office. It was while we were arguing that the current Nakuru East MP overheard the heated exchange and waded into the office. He ordered the officer to refund the young man the full amount while commending me for my good work in seeing the youths were getting IDs free of charge.

He also asked me to look for him any day to talk about how we could ensure youths were acquiring the identity cards in numbers. And to seek him I did when one of my children became unwell. After helping me out, he asked me to work at his office, this time turning my volunteerism into a kind of employment paid through his office. I had to resign from my salon job.

As we approached the 2017 polls, it was a frenzy of activities seeing many being registered not only for the IDs but as voters. Politicians approached me to help youths in their bastions acquire IDs to be eligible voters. But some politicians did not take it kindly and accused me of swelling the numbers of their rivals by selectively helping many young people in a politician's stronghold acquire the vital documents. I was simply caught in a political crossfire!

To undermine me, some people would be sent even by the opponents of the sitting MP to spread all manners of rumours about me. The political tarnishing did me more harm than good, and I lost my job. 

State House called

I currently survive as a carwash lady. However, I take pride in recognition of my volunteerism work when I got a call from the State House where an official there directed me to see the Nakuru County Commissioner. The President had declared that everyone was entitled to a national identity card. The County Commissioner asked what I needed and I requested for the county offices to be issuing a vehicle to help ferry youths to registration centres. Sometimes it's tiring walking long distances with a group of youth and at times we have been challenged to identify ourselves in the mistaken belief that the young people could be suspicious characters.

Another source of pride is seeing the youths I helped joining SACCOs and getting loans to start businesses or registering youth groups that have enabled them to access government loans. This has kept the crime rate low."

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