How chief has changed the rule book in solving cases

By Obegi Malack

Chiefs’ offices are where most community cases are reported as police processes are meticulously painstaking, slow, and unaffordable.

Ordinarily, the chief is the ultimate disciplinary master who decides cases at their pleasure, without necessarily being guided by law.

In Kware, Nkaimurunya Ward of Kajiado North Sub-location, things are different at assistant chief Esther Njeri’s office.

Njeri has been a local administrator since 2009 and has been promoted to Assistant Chief 3.

She studied Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) after high school and was looking forward to fulfilling her dream of becoming a police officer when she was made an assistant chief.

Njeri has seen it all in Kware slum, one of the high-

By our reporter

For children to fulfill their dreams and reach their optimum potential, they have to be in institutions that closely nurture them to bring out the best in them; the rightly called centres of excellence.

One of the centres of excellence in Kajiado County is Our Lady Queen of Mercy Academy located in Kitengela town in Kajiado East Constituency, which has persistently produced top candidates in the country.

In 2018, one of their candidates was ranked among the top in the country and second in the entire county. Gabriel Miseda got 440 marks to join Maranda High, and went on to score A plain of 83 points in 2022 KCSE, ranking among the crème de la crème in that est populated slums in Kajiado County. She has seen young women defiled, raped, robbed and even murdered.

The sharp rise in gender-based violence cases forced her to start counselling and spiritual sessions. She got her skills from the government and Nairobi Women’s Hospital, which provides free treatment and psycho-social support to

GBV survivors.

“I have witnessed many cases of GBV. The number is decreasing and the community is aware of what I do,” she says.

It was a reprieve for women to get a woman assistant chief who listens to their issues since men mostly side with their fellow men.

Most cases that she attends to are family matters, child labour and tenant-landlord rent conflicts.

The most difficult cases are those related to alcoholism and drug abuse.

“We need long-term solutions like rehabilitation to empower the affected,” she says.

The administrator represents South Rift region in NACADA training on drug addiction counseling. Women who were involved in illicit brews received training on starting alternative businesses. Most illicit brews in the slum are from Kibera and Kawang- ware, and Kware is only a retail outlet.

Njeri has witnessed killing and prosecution of many youth involved in crime, though the 100 per cent transition to secondary school has drastically reduced cases of robbery and murder.

Apart from administration, the chief is a talented gospel artist. She has recorded 20 songs thus far, including Nainuka, Eeh Bwana, Makeria, Nitakuabudu, among several others.

Her ministry in Kware has supported many women spiritually as many have had their lives transformed.

But her profession is not all rosy. One time she was terrified by a man in whose sodomy case she had been a witness. The man was jailed hence she was shocked to see him in her office at very odd hours. He had clearly come to revenge, but luckily a police officer showed up just in time.

“When I saw the man at my door, I shouted for help and he took off when a policeman who was passing by answered my distress call. I have never seen him again,” she says.

She is willing to continue helping the slum dwellers using her unique approaches, but is eyeing a political post in future as a higher calling.

The sharp rise in gender-based violence cases forced her to start counselling and spiritual sessions after she acquired skills from the government and Nairobi Women’s Hospital.