Unfinished article

Today I met with a woman called Maria Gathoni, no I actually did not meet with her, I saw her. I was heading to community to get my son a birth certificate; I was to hook up with my friend for company. As is with matatus, they often don get to where you are going and so I got off the mat at NHIF. As I walked down to get to community, I heard a woman crying softly, so soft that I thought it was the baby sleeping next to her who was crying. I looked at the baby and he seemed so hungry, but mother was not bothered. I felt for the baby, and I even thought of asking her if I should take the baby with me. I suppressed the thought and went to meet my friend before the office closed for lunch at 12:30.

Soon as I met my friend, who is also called Faith, she told me, “we have to go back up for a few minutes, I saw a woman who was crying and she has a baby.” I was moved, she had seen the same woman and she knew she had to do something about it, she unlike me, was not going to worry about her and pray that someone helps her. So we bought 4 bananas and made our way back up to meet the woman. By the time we got to her, she was still crying and the baby next to her was asleep, probably feeling hopeless as there was no food for him and things were not looking up.

We woke her up and she started wailing, no sobbing, the baby next to her woke up, probably from the commotion that was starting to build up as other pedestrians stood to watch, another woman joined us to questioning her on what was wrong. We could hardly hear her over the sobs. Finally we asked her if we could give her a banana, which she hungrily took, to her baby, we asked her how old he was, 8 months was his age. So I peeled a banana and was mashing it with my fingers as I fed the baby, who from my mother experience was very hungry. Babies do not finish a whole banana in less than 10 minutes, the baby was hungry.

My friend and the other lady were now asking her what was wrong. Her story. She lives in Githurai and she sells paper bags to earn her living. Yesterday, she sent her 3-year-old son to buy something across the road from her stand and as the boy was crossing the road, a boda boda guy hit the small boy and sped off. Traffic police rushed the boy and mother to Kenyatta National Hospital and he was taken to theater, however, by morning, the boy passed away and was transferred to the mortuary. So the cops told her to go to Kasarani police station to write her statement. She was at her wits end. She was so devastated she went and drunk and then went into depression and was too weak to walk, she just collapsed on the next patch of grass she saw, which is where we found her.

The other lady who was with us, much older than us, asked her if she has any family in Nairobi, only family member was her brother Mburu who works at Gikomba. She gave the lady the number and as if things can’t get any worse, the number was not going through. One pedestrian dropped 20/= for the lady. The older lady then advised her to go meet her brother at his place of work so she can at least have family support, she gave her 100/= and left.

We asked her what she needed and as any mother would, she said that all she wanted was a diaper for her baby who was not in one and so was wet. I could not imagine my son in that position, I wanted to wail at the thought of what that lil baby was going through. We told her to wait for us and as we left to go look for diapers, she peeled another banana. At the shop, we got two pieces of diapers, two packets of milk and mandazi for her.

Her appearance had changed; you could tell she had a tiny, little, glimmer of hope, she repeated what she had told Faith, I think I should listen to the woman who keeps telling me about God, because I had lost all hope I even went to drink and my baby had nothing to eat. I only had 20/= and did not know whether to buy my baby food or go to Githurai. She put a diaper on her baby and we told her to pack her things in the paper bag soon as she finished the packet of milk and the mandazi. Faith reminded her that alcohol would by no means solve her problems; in fact, it would make her feel worse.

We took her brother’s number and promised to call him; we told her that God had not left her though at the moment it looked like He had. We told her that we would be praying for her and her baby Ken. As she swung lil Ken onto her back, she told us how the father of the children was in jail, because of a fight that had happened a couple of months ago between city council and hawkers. They were caught, 18 of them, and were jailed without bail to serve as a warning to other hawkers.

We came up with a plan with her, she was to go meet her brother then make her way to Githurai and then tomorrow, she would go to Subukia, her shags, to let her family know and have them fund raise to transport the body to shags for burial.

3:47PM, I talked to Mburu who told me that he would send me Maria’s sister’s number I talk to her sister, as they are closer, he sent the number.

10:30 PM, I called the sister who told me that Maria’s real name is Magdalene and Mburu was not her brother but her husband and they have two children together, the older one who is about 3 yrs is in shags with Mburu’s parents and she has a younger one about 10 months. She is addicted to drugs and alcohol and does those tricks to get money to fund her alcoholism. Gathoni even lends a baby to go con people with, and makes the payments at the end of the day. She horridly told me that she has been conned by the said Gathoni over and over before. She reminded me not to be so naïve when it comes to helping people, coz people can lie to get money from you. I felt for ‘lil Ken’.

I have a whole mix of feelings, why would you put a child through that just to get 50/= to buy drugs, ‘lil Ken’ poor lil Ken. I wish I could adopt him; he for sure does not deserve life like that. Whether she was lying or telling the truth, I am not sure I want to know. All I do is pray that ‘lil Ken’ will not suffer the fate of his mother…unfinished article