After serving one year in prison for a crime she did not commit, the reality of life behind bars for women in Kenya haunted her. Compelled to make a difference, she chose to dedicate her life towards helping women caught up in the judicial system.
Teresa Njoroge was drawn to the world of finance at a young age. Her father, a banker by profession, was her source of inspiration.
“I always wanted to be exactly like my father,” Teresa told The Weight She Carries. “So, right from when I was 9 years old, I found myself concentrating and focusing in studies that were more aligned towards banking studies, economic studies, accounting and finance.”
She got a scholarship and obtained a bachelor’s degree in commerce banking and finance abroad. Soon after she completed her degree, Teresa began working and excelled in her career.
“Within the first six [to] seven years, I was already in senior management. I was a premier relationship manager dealing with a high-end clientele within the bank,” she said. “This really saw me interact with shapers of the economy as I interacted with them within the bank.”
Teresa was a role model to many and mentored many men and women whom she managed within the bank. Unfortunately, one transaction changed the course of her life.
“I happened to handle a fraudulent transaction unknowingly, and as much as they cooperated to get to the bottom of the investigation for us to find out who had dropped the ball, within a year or so of that transaction happening, I got arrested,” she said. “It was a wrongful arrest, I got falsely imprisoned and very maliciously prosecuted.”
“I lost my job in a very shameful manner. So much shame and embarrassment covered that entire period and it was such a shift from the Kenyan corporate world, from a high-end banker to now being within the criminal justice system, [going to] court, paying bail, dealing with lawyers, no job…it was a very difficult shift; especially knowing very well that this is something that I had not done.”
Teresa put her best effort into her legal battle. She was determined to prove she was innocent.
“It was a very, very difficult time for the two-and-a-half years in and out of courts and going through a very corrupt judicial system. However, I managed to get through it,” she said. “And within those two-and-a-half years, God blessed me.”
Teresa got married and had her firstborn daughter, Omar. But her case took an unexpected turn for the worse.
“I was asked to pay bribes and upon refusing to pay the bride, I ended up being convicted. I had to be accompanied by my daughter to the highest correctional facility for women – Lang’ata Women Maximum Security Prison,” she said. “This was a very, very traumatic time for my daughter and I. She was only three months old at the time I got convicted.”
“Lang’ata Maximum Prison was a place I just couldn’t fathom ending up in or even figuring out how I was now living life as a convict, as a criminal. It was very difficult. I had some very dark days, questioning how I moved from the respected financial sector to now being behind bars at the largest correctional facility for women in Kenya. It was very difficult to handle.”
– Teresa Njoroge
“Life in prison is not a fairy tale. And Kenyan prisons for that matter are a place where human dignity, self-confidence, esteem and basic necessities – something just like flowing water – is a problem,” she said. “Food was such a big problem.”
Teresa dug deep to draw strength to get through her one-year sentence. Her daughter kept her going, and so did her faith.
“I prayed a lot and sought to find out why this had to happen in my life. They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Seeing the conditions the women were in; realizing that 90 percent of the women behind bars were mothers, sole breadwinners, had left their children on the streets and came from very poor backgrounds [was troubling],” she said. “Within the Kenyan judicial system, it’s very easy for you to get your way if you have money, even when guilty. But if you’re poor, no matter how innocent you may be, you’ll end up being imprisoned.”
Teresa decided she needed to do something to help those trapped in the judicial system. While still in prison, she founded Clean Start, an organization that focuses on helping women rebuild their lives post imprisonment.
“I got out of prison and eventually got cleared, even vindicated and compensated by the government of Kenya. But by that time, I had already vowed to dedicate my life to grow Clean Start, to see to it that we turn around and transform and right the many systems and things that are wrong within our society,” she said.
Clean Start now has a team of 20 – half of whom are women Teresa met in prison who are now contributing towards the growth and vision of empowering and transforming other women.
“My advice to any woman out there who is caught up in a shameful situation – in a situation where they’re truly between a rock and a very hard place – when you’ve gotten to the lowest level of your bottom, look up. Gather the little strength that you can get within you, and all you need to do is make one step forward, another step forward, and then another. It’s those little steps forward that make all the difference.
Rebuilding her life has not been easy, but Teresa has learnt that she is far stronger than she ever imagined.
“There’s so much strength within us. Teamwork amongst us as women makes all the difference. And there’s no higher limit no deeper limit that we cannot achieve if we put our minds to it think,” she said.
