Sometimes the finish line isn’t a ribbon stretched across a road. It’s a small house in the village. And she’s been running towards it for most of her life. 

She was born into a sprawling polygamous family where scarcity was common. Her father didn’t work. Her mother brewed busaa to keep the family afloat. The police would regularly carry her away, leaving the children behind with empty stomachs and no idea when she’d return. 

“I was used to hunger.”  

She made it through school, escaped to Nairobi and landed in Kariobangi, where surviving was another high-wire act. Then a job came. A man also came. 

The job paid little. The man promised more. 

“We got two children, a boy and a girl.” 

For a brief moment, life looked like it might loosen its grip. 

Then one day she travelled to Kericho Police Station where her husband was being held. 

“There had been a robbery. People had died.” 

Her husband was eventually hauled off to prison for ten years. Just like that, she found herself raising two young children alone.  People talk about single motherhood as though it’s a title. It’s not. It’s logistics. School fees. Rent. Uniforms. Food. Bus fare. Sickness. Hope.  

Then waking up before dawn to do it all over again. 

Eventually, Securex came. For thirteen years she has stood at the entrance of a large shopping mall on Thika Road, asking people to empty their pockets. To walk back through the metal detector. Some people ignore you. Some people have guns. Some people talk back to you. Some people simply don’t understand that you are doing a job. 

“It’s not an easy job. I leave home before the sun comes up. I get back after it has gone down.”  

She’s done that for thirteen years. 

You sometimes feel like a silhouette. People walk past you and don’t really see you.Today her children are grown. The small victories matter more than they sound. Through SACCO loans at Securex, she built a modest house upcountry. She dreams of opening a small business there, retiring early and living a quiet life.  

“Nairobi has taken too much of me.”