Inside a ramshackle single leaving house in Nyahera village, Suna East Constituency of Migori County, a 32-year-old physically challenged girl sit with her back against a rough wall. Her face obscured by a thin veil of smoke that rises from a mixture of maize and beans cooking from a black pot at one of the darkest corners of the house.
The lone house donning rusted iron-sheets inside a fifty by 100 size plot and about 30kms from Migori town, is enough proof that Ms Margaret Ajema and her three siblings lead a poverty ravaged life.
The jovial and bright looking disable girl, whose life has since gone full circle of poverty, only moves around by crawling due to her twisted lower limbs. And the ever-smiling girl also lacks the full ounce to handle heavy chores because of her abnormality in her upper limbs.
But Margaret, as she is fondly referred to around, is one among a few persons living with disability who have vowed not to be deterred by their physical impairments. Born deformed limbs, Margaret is determined to beat all odds and become the sole rescuer of her poor family.
“My condition will not shatter my urge to take care and uplift my family,” vowed Margaret during an interview with the Kenya News Agency (KNA) at their home.
At the moment, Margaret who is the firstborn in a family of four that includes her, a brother, a sister and her own son, has taken over the full responsibility of providing for the family after the death of their mother, whom they solely depended on in 2022.
Unbelievably of her condition though, Margaret is able to cook, wash clothes, clean utensils, receive and make calls easily on her cheap phone without much ado.
More so, when the KNA crew visited her home this week, it was a disbelief to the personnel when she displayed how she makes the liquid hand-wash and all-round cleaning soap, that has become her main business and income earner to her family.
Within a span of one hour, the team was mesmerised to watch Margaret make a ten-litre jerrican full of liquid soap, which she promised to sell in Migori town the following day.
I am able to make a 20litter of this soap in a week depending on how fast it would sell in the market,” she told the team, explaining that from Sh900 she always invests in acquiring all the seven ingredients she uses to make the 20litre soap, she is able to earn a profit of Sh.2,200 when all sold.
However, Margaret faces a myriad of challenges while conducting her business. Among the problems include, ferrying the stock from home to the market, knee-jack price changes for the soap ingredients and change of climate.
“During heavy rains, it becomes a herculean task moving my ware to the market in Migori town because no motorcycle taxi operator is always ready to take me to the town,” she says. A part from that, her movement during this time is seriously curtailed by muddy ground because of her condition of crawling only that makes her dirty with mud.
Lack of enough funds has also been a major problem to her because she relies only on the profits to eke a living for her family.
“I have not been able to expand the business well because what I earn as profit all goes towards feeding the family and paying part of school fees for my sister who is now doing her fourth form education at Mapera Day Secondary School,” she added.
Margaret was born already a disabled child, a condition that shocked her parents. All parents remember the excitement that greeted every milestone the new baby, especially the first one, reached. Some of them even have photo albums and diaries with records of baby’s first smiles, first steps and to extent first days in school.
But regrettably for Mama Grace Imari (mother of Margaret) who died at age 67 in 2022, all she could remember about her firstborn daughter, was a spell of unfulfilled dreams, despair and total sufferings.
Imari’s all hopes of living a better life ended immediately she gave birth to Margaret who bounced into this world, a physically challenged child. During her lifetime, she had to help Margaret bathe, dress up and do other house and personal chores even when she was sick.
According to Margaret, it was not easy for her mother raising her and her two siblings as she required a lot of support which she could not get in the absence of the father who had died many years back.
“Due to may condition, life had never been easy to my mother ever since. She had to work extra hard to take care of the family,” narrated Margaret, adding that her mother struggled and enrol her at St. Georges Secondary School for the physically challenged persons in Nyakach, Kisumu County, where she scored a D+ in her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, wiping away ‘all my hopes of becoming a Judge in Kenya’.
Margaret’s dream of becoming a high Court Judge was all washed away after performing poorly in the exams. “I had all along dreamt of being a High Court Judge in Kenya to help dispense with the many injustices happening in Kenya and especially those peddled against persons living with disabilities,”
Nevertheless, Margaret is still a spirited and determined soul that one day she will meet someone who will open college doors for her to pursue any course that will help her raise her son and also support her ailing family.
Amidst the hardships Margaret and her family face, she is so determined on doing things for herself in helping the family and at the moment she is the sole breadwinner and the head of the family.
The family is in a total fix, wading in a sea of poverty and depending on little food tilled from a quarter acre farm, the only piece of land it owns in the area and from a peanut income earned from selling the liquid soap.
Compounding the misery in the family history is the fact that Margaret herself has one son to take care of. The boy is also physically challenged like her mother Margaret, nursing a deformed leg.
She gave birth to the lame child while still in school after a man lured her to an illicit sex escapade to the chagrin of the family members and the local villagers.
Although, she shares that it is always every parent’s wish to see their children make their first strides and even call the name “mama”, this is something that nature has denied her.
The boy who could not be fended for properly by her mother is currently under the care of a local orphanage home and now in grade 7 at Asumbi school for the physically challenged in Homa Bay County.
“I gave birth to my son while I was very young. I wanted to be with my child and see him grow and walk in my arms, something I cannot do. But I had to let him go after three months because I had no means of taking care of him,” she remorsefully narrated.
Despite her admiration to be with her son, who is now 15-year-old, Margaret is grateful for the well-wishers from the Kenya Relief Organisation.
The organisation has taken full responsibility of educating her son and allowing him to visit home every holiday when schools are closed
When Inua Jamii cash transfers and disability funds came in, it gave hope to many who are unable to fend for themselves like Margret. She has been a beneficiary of this program receiving Sh2000 every month.
However, she laments the delayed remittance of such funds from the ministry as sometimes it takes months before they receive the support. This leaves her and her family in a devastating state. “Partly I rely on the disability funds to fend for my family but the delays are worrying, forcing me to seek other solutions like begging from people,” decried Margaret.
Apart from the financial support, Margaret’s main wish is to get an electric wheelchair that she can use to move from place to place since crawling is not easy, especially on their rocky roads. The wheelchair she has now requires her to beg for a Good Samaritan all the times to push her around.
She says that with the electric wheelchair, she can move freely on her own, selling the liquid soap and find other means of getting other simple jobs to do around the family home.
“My main challenge is movement. The roads leading to our home are rocky and after crawling for long hours I feel much pain. With an electric wheelchair, I can move easily and reach places where I can get help,” she said.
An interview with an orthopaedic expert Amos Odhiambo who has treated Margaret and has an insight history of the family revealed that the family suffers a hereditary health problem.
The problem manifests well in first born children within the family lineage, explaining that Margaret is first born, her son who is lame is firstborn, her father who was also lame was first born and her step-mother who died long time ago gave birth to a disabled first-born son.
According to Odhiambo, who works at Migori Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), Margaret’s condition is referred to as congenital malformations. This is a condition where the patient has defects or abnormalities in the body that develop during pregnancy.
The condition is caused by genetic or chromosomal abnormalities, environmental factors such as exposure to toxins, and maternal health during pregnancy.
The medic states that the condition can only be rectified at birth or before the baby reach five years. Although, the medical operation can only be done to help the patient to stand but not develop undeveloped limbs when the patient has none.
By Margaret Vanjelyn and Faith Opar
