Nerima Wako-Ojiwa is the Executive Director of 'Siasa Place', an organisation that is dedicated to creating an environment that enables the youth of Kenya to directly engage with the political mainstream in a meaningful way. Siasa Place currently works in 10 counties, and has 250 registered members. The 30 year old 2018 Obama Leaders Fellow attained her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Sociology from Jacksonville State University 2010 and her Masters in Public Administration in 2012.  Nerima is also a columnist with 'The East African'.

In this country, being as politically active as you are takes tremendous courage. What is your greatest fear?

I don't think I have any fear. When my younger brother was diagnosed with kidney failure and I volunteered to donate my kidney, I imagined I would have fear because, I think, for a lot of us our greatest fear is death. But even as I was being  wheeled  into the theatre, there was no moment of fear for me. My brother's fear was the surgery would go wrong and he would end up wasting my kidney or my life. I just looked at him, smiled and said, "It's going to be okay, the only thing I want you to do is to accept my kidney, just tell your body that this kidney is yours and your body will not reject it". In that moment, I I also learned the true meaning of love where you can sacrifice your life for somebody else. Many people go through life and never get to experience that. I think fear is what keeps these boxes around us so we never really life to the full.

Have you always been fearless or is it something you learned  along the way?

I learned it along the way. It took surviving an emotionally abusive relationship and almost being rendered homeless to get here.

You were in an abusive relationship?

And I didn't even know it.  I was living in the US at the time, it was my first relationship and I'd met him when I was 19.  By the time it got to the manipulation stage I was 20. One day, I was with my friends and got this bad feeling. I called his phone and a police officer picked it up. He asked me who I was and I was like, "I'm his girlfriend." He told me they had just arrested my boyfriend for stealing and selling drugs. I was in this little bubble but I could see that something was off. It was hard to go through but it was also a turning point for me. I decided I was going to choose my life, I didn't want somebody making that decision for me.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

It would be for people to have more empathy. Because I think if we had more empathy, we would make better decisions. I think we are where we are as a country because people are not empathetic enough. I work in town because I want to be able to understand what happens every day in this country. Sometimes I look outside my window and  see people getting robbed. I get that the thief probably needs to make a living and that's the best way they know how. And I feel bad for the guy who's chasing the thief because he may not be able to get another phone or whatever; this is probably something he worked hard for and someone just comes and snatches it. I think we've lost that empathy and respect for one another because things have become so hard- people are in survival mode, which is animalistic. We don't even stop to question, what am I doing? I watch those matatus at railways where they're not allowed to stop so people jump on them when they're still moving and their police officers just watching. One day I saw a pregnant woman doing that. What if she had tripped? Sometimes its in the most mundane things but we've become so numb. Being in town gives me a reality check and re-affirms my mission. This is why we need to change things. And I try. I try so hard. Yesterday, I was asking my mum why I feel this heaviness for a better country? I was like, why couldn't I just be simple and just want a nice house for myself, start a family and just live. I want to be ignorant sometimes. When I see kids selling sweets on the streets instead of being in school… Why do these things hurt me so much? Mum just laughed and said, "God placed it in your heart and for a reason".

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