Samuel was too young for the job but too tall to be ignored. 

He was 23 when he saw the Securex recruitment advert on Facebook. The problem was getting to Nairobi from Makueni. He had only 400 shillings between him and poverty. His friend Kennedy lent him a motorbike and another 200 bob. Suddenly, he had 600 and a plan. 

He left Makueni at 10 a.m, and rode furiously in the wind. Machakos at 11. Then he waited for a matatu to fill up. It finally did around 1 p.m, because this is how things work in the village. He reached Nairobi at 2:15. 

The recruitment was long over. But there was another the following day, he learnt. He knew nobody in Nairobi, had 150 shillings left, and dusk would soon fall. That night, a night of long lives if you are prone to dramatics, he roamed the safer parts of Nairobi at night to burn time and later slept in a well lit doorway. 

At first light, he was back to the recruitment center, certificates under his arm. The whistle went. They ran around a field seven times. Gruesome for most but he had already had a year in NYS and was tough. Men dropped out. Samuel kept running. Then came the height check, which he passed easily. 

When he presented his certificates, they discovered he was too young; 23. They wanted 28 year olds and above. He was asked to get out of the line and go home. He went to the side and started weeping. All his hopes were here. When he started walking away he heard a voice call him, it could have been the voice of God at this point, but it was Mr Nderitu who was in charge of recruitment. He said, “Wewe mrefu. Come here.” 

And that’s how he got the job. 

His height had saved him. 

That was May 2025. 

Samuel had lost his mother in 2012. His father was already gone. He was raised by relatives. Now he has a wife and a one-month-old son. He is building a new narrative for his life, for his son. “I want to build his life. I want to be a good person. I want him to do good.” 

There are worse things to inherit from your father than a little determination. And, apparently, a considerable amount of height.