I have no money to give, but my agenda is worth more

Sophia Nasieku Katampoi, 29, is a remarkable young woman. Born in 1988, in a very conservative community in Kenya, she, thankfully, did not go down the path which many girls before her had been forced to take. 

At 14 years when many of her peers were dropping out of school to get circumcised, and perhaps get married off, she was preparing to go to high school, after scoring top marks in her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams. She joined Limuru Girls High School and then proceeded to Daystar University where she studied Peace and Conflict Transformation with environment as her second major, graduating in 2013.

Fast-forward to this year, Sophia is vying for Member of County Assembly for Oloolua Ward, Kajiado County. She is the youngest contender for the seat, and joins the race with nothing in her hands but an iron will to succeed, a tremendous amount of faith  and a strong desire to change for better the lives of every man, woman and child, who calls the small settlement of Oloolua, near Ngong Town, their home.

Comprised of roughly 40,000 people, Oloolua Ward lies in Kajiado County, specifically, Kajiado North. It has four sub locations, including Bulbul and Mathare slum, where majority of low income earners and the unemployed live, eking out a meagre living doing manual work. It is here that Sophia yearns to serve as MCA.

To do this however, she has to beat six seasoned politicians,  all well-connected and flush with money. All are campaigning on the tickets of stronger and more popular political parties.

While the competition is cruising around in top-of-the-range fuel guzzlers and dishing out goodies, Sophia has been traversing the campaign trail on foot, talking to men, women and youth in market places, churches and women groups.

Her ingenious ‘chapati forums’, where mainly youth come together to prepare, eat and share food with the less fortunate, draw some to her campaign. Her campaign is majorly led by six young men under 35, her campaign materials, including t-shirts, branded and donated by young artists in her constituency.

So what propels her forward despite the odds against her?

“I believe that I was born to serve, and have never shied away from a challenge.”

But why politics and not any other area where servant leadership is needed?

“This is where laws are made and policies changed. As a peace builder for instance, I realise peace-building is not about telling people not to fight, it is about dismantling structures that allow all forms of injustices to thrive. These injustices undermine peace and create fertile ground for violence. These must be addressed for peace to prevail.”

If elected, Sophia says she will lobby to change policies that undermine the youth, women and children. 

COMMUNITY SERVICE

She is no stranger to community service. After college, she joined other youth to form Green Fun Initiative, a community-based organisation that mobilised local youth to plant trees and clean up their environment.

“We planted thousands of trees on Ngong hills, Oloolua Nature Trail and several public schools. This initiative also created a safe space for youth to talk about issues affecting them, with the aim of finding lasting solutions. Issues such as unemployment, crime, drug and substance abuse were a major concern.”

Sophia later got a job with a local NGO whose mandate was peace building. Here, she met and interacted with young people desperate for meaningful participation in governance. She was disturbed to see so many young people sitting idle in centers such as Embul - Bul, making them fodder for any politician with a little money and a false promise. She worried that successive governments had done little to better lives in this area. It is then that she began thinking that perhaps youth affairs could be better handled by one of their own. Why not her? She decided to join politics in 2016 and when elections were called in 2017, threw her hat into the ring.  Sophia admits the campaign trail has been grueling.

“Some that pledged support at the beginning stayed the course for just a few days; when my savings ran out, my campaign team left. I almost gave up but my conscience would not let me; I decided to fight to the bitter end.”

A typical day on the camping trail begins with Sophia putting on comfortable shoes and perching a sun hat on her head. Jeans and t-shirt mostly carry the day. With a bottle of water in hand, she and her team hit the road canvasing for votes door-door, late into the night. The biggest obstacle however, has been cultural and gender bias.

“Coming from a culture that is very conservative, I have met people who first want to know whether I am married. When I tell them that I am not, they tell me that marriage offers stability and vital lessons in resource management, making me unsuitable for the job. Some tell me, outright, that they won’t vote for me because I am single and too young to run the office I seek - I tell them marriage is not a prerequisite to leadership”.

Should she win, Sophia says that youth empowerment will be her top priority. And no, she does not think the issue has been flogged enough.  “Majority of underprivileged youth don’t know about, and therefore cannot take advantage of the many opportunities that already exist. There’s also the fact that youth training centers such as the one built recently in Oloolua are ill-equipped to benefit the intended youth”.

“If elected, I will start by equipping this technical center with the right tools for skills training. Trainers are also needed, and youth who complete training here need shepherding into gainful ventures.”

Without digital literacy, any young man or woman will find it very difficult to succeed in any venture today, so she also plans to invest in tech education.

Through her ward oversite committees, she says, her constituents will be able to decide which projects to prioritise and stop the plunder of public resources.

“I will replace dependency with sustainable ways of self-reliance and launch an aggressive environmental conservation campaign to restore lost tree cover and improve food security in my area of influence.”

Should the election not go her way, Sophia says she will not tire in her community service and will continue to serve wherever needed.

This young woman is the outgoing President of the Rotaract Club of Ngong Hills, which, through Rotary International and the help of the mother club, Rotary Club of Ngong Hills, undertakes a wide range of progressive community projects. Activities include building ablution blocks for needy schools, equipping school libraries with books, drilling boreholes for community water, among other forms of selfless service. 

Sophia is the first born in a family of seven. Her father is a pastor, her mother a retired insurance agent. As a child, Sophia cared for her siblings while her parents were away. Exposure to such responsibility at an early age planted the seed for leadership in her heart.

She is greatly inspired by the late conservationist and Nobel Prize Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai, celebrated world over for her conservation efforts.