Sunday, January 8, 2012

Kerubo: My encounter with Baraza



By Alex Kiprotich and Kenfrey Kiberenge

The saga surrounding an alleged gun drama between Deputy Chief Justice (DCJ) Nancy Baraza and a security guard, Rebecca Kerubo, is shaping up to be a duel of the biblical David versus Goliath.
Justice Baraza has been put in the dock by Ms Kerubo in an incident that has captured the imagination of the nation.
Kenyans glued to the televised grilling of candidates for the position of Chief Justice and DCJ are wondering whether after passing through the baptism of fire by the straight-shooting Ahmednassir Abdullahi of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and answering questions about her sexuality live on TV, Baraza would be brought down by the 33-year-old mother of three.
Already, calls for the resignation of Baraza are getting louder by the day, ahead of a crucial emergency meeting convened tomorrow by Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga to discuss the matter.
For Kerubo, December 31 is a day she will now never forget.
It all started like a normal day with no notable events but what happened later that day would snowball into one of the most intriguing stories so far this year.
Kerubo left her Sh4,000-a-month, two-roomed house in the peri-urban Gachie after bidding goodbye to her three children and unemployed husband, Morara Ogweche.
In an interview with The Standard On Sunday, under cover of darkness for fear of being monitored, Kerubo said she arrived at work at 8am and took her position at the security desk outside the Nakumatt supermarket at the Village Market shopping mall — in the upmarket Gigiri area in Nairobi. She assumed the day would go as planned – extend up to 1am because of the many people coming for New Year’s shopping – and later join her family before merry-making at dawn.
During the interview heavily punctuated by phrases of mnyonge hana haki (the weak have no rights) and sobs, she says trouble started at around 6pm when "an ordinary shopper" came and insisted on passing without being frisked.
"In such instances, you have your supervisor scolding you for not doing your work. So I stood my grounds," recalled Kerubo.
At this moment, she claims the shopper pinched her nose telling her "you need to "know people."
For a moment, Kerubo was shaken but says she did not put up a fight as she did not know who the shopper was. "After she pinched my nose at the security desk, she proceeded to the pharmacy and beckoned me," she recalled with tears flowing down her cheeks.
Learn to respect people
Kerubo says by then, she assumed the DCJ had calmed down but on reaching where she was, she told her to learn to respect people.
"I told her respect is two way and left the chemist for the security desk where I continued screening customers," she said.
But this seems to have rubbed Baraza the wrong way. Kerubo alleges on her way out, the DCJ came to her desk and ordered her security detail to shoot her.
"I did not know she had a bodyguard and only realised when she told a man following her closely to shoot me," she said.
By then, Kerubo said she did not take it seriously and went on with screening clients only to see the lady reappear pointing a pistol at her.
"I knelt down begging her to spare my life. I could not hear what she was saying but as soon as she lowered the gun, I fled to the security office up stairs where I found one of the senior security officers," she said.
After reporting the incident to her supervisor, Kerubo, whose father was shot dead by unknown assailants as he guarded a Karen home in 2000, requested to be allowed time off as she could not continue with her work.
Recollecting the events of the day, Ogweche said on the evening of December 31, Kerubo returned home earlier than expected.
"Unlike the normal days, she came and did not even greet me and I knew there was a problem as she began to cry," he said.
He said the following day, after disclosing her tribulations, she refused to go to work but convinced her for the sake of the family.
Since then, the events ensuing events have been intriguing. Kerubo has been shuttling from one Gigiri police station office to another recording statements.
She and her family have also been lured into a reconciliatory meeting with Baraza, which was set for Thursday at their home.
Ogweche says he received a call from a person speaking in Kisii dialect telling him to convene his relatives and wait for Baraza, who was to apologise on Thursday at 9am.
"We waited up to the evening and a woman claiming to be Baraza’s relative appeared," said Ogweche.
As it seems, the frantic efforts to reconcile the two women – already far apart in the social standing – has only raised temperatures and widened the rift further.
The emissary allegedly sent by the DCJ failed to convince the family after they insisted Baraza herself meets them to apologise.
He added the woman, who did not even provide her name, rang someone whom she said was Baraza and told her not to proceed with the meeting because journalists were in the vicinity.
He said the woman brought them two loaves of bread, three packets of milk, two kilos of sugar, two kilos of rice, three packets of maize flour and four litres of soda.
Kerubo is a casual labourer earning Sh2,400 per week while Baraza enjoys a security of tenure and takes home monthly emoluments of over Sh1 million, all paid by taxpayers.
On the other hand, Kerubo rents a Sh4,000 two-roomed house where she shares with her family of five.
"We just moved from a Sh1,800-a-month one-roomed iron sheet shanty because our family is now big," said Ogweche.
Kerubo said on the day she encountered Baraza, she had worked as a guard at the village market for only 28 days.
Previously, she worked at Numetro Cinemas for six years, also as a security guard before it was closed down in June. She said after the incident, she is no longer sure of the future of her job because of fear.
"My husband is a mason and when there is no construction work we all depend on my meagre earnings," she said.
Ogweche, 38, said he has not known Kerubo to be combative or argumentative in their relationship spanning 17 years – 12 of them as a married couple.
"Everyone needs to be respected in his or her work and it is unfortunate that some people look down upon others. It is even worse when it comes from the custodian of our justice system," he said.
The family says they are willing to forgive Baraza unconditionally if she offers a genuine apology.
"I am willing to forgive her if she apologises. But if she cannot, she told me we meet in court which is still okay for me," said Kerubo.

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