There was one female police officer in OlKalou, actually the first one we ever met. Our society back then was male dominated and there were some professions where women had not been fully embraced. Case in point – being a police officer. The entire male police force back then wore khaki shorts, a tradition carried forward from the colonial era. Back in the day, the khaki fabric was nothing like the fancy casual khaki you see today. Our khaki was a tough fabric which was stiff as a board especially after starching and ironing as was required of police uniform. The iron line (mukunjo) was so pronounced, it was a cultural reference, “kibandi giake gukunyorothetwo bathi, mukunjo nouteme ngi” translation, “his shorts were thoroughly ironed, the line could slice a fly in half”. That was for the male police officers, and that was the uniform we got accustomed to. Then came this woman officer in OlKalou, smartly dressed in Navy blue skirt and a crisp white shirt, police issue boots and the usual hat. You could see two braids of her hair sticking from the back of her hat, kind of to remind everybody, “I am a girl but don’t mess with me. I am an officer of the Kenya Police force“. And nobody messed with our only female officer. Her name was Njambi. She was newly married to the well known Mr. Kibunja, a teacher at St. Joseph Primary School, who later became the long serving headmaster of the same school.
My parents were friends with the couple and I remember when they had their first baby, a girl named Wairimu. My mother packed a bag of produce, two bottles of milk, some grocery shopping and some baby outfits (nguo cia mbamba). I was her escort to go see the new baby. I had no idea where we were going until we got there. My parents only gave us information on “a need to know basis”. In this instance, I did not need to know where we were going, I just needed to tag along and keep my mouth shut. I did.
We had witnessed with fascination the recent construction of the teachers quarters of St. Joseph Primary School at the back-end of the school where we passed every time we went into town. The four or five houses were in a single row but in a unique zigzag pattern. The footpath into town passed right next to the houses with only a barbed wire fence in between.
On this particular day, as I walked beside my mother, instead of proceeding into town, I saw her turn towards those zigzag houses and started going over the barbed wire fence. I followed closely behind. I wondered who she knew in there, but I held my tongue. She knocked on the first house which was right next to the footpath where we passed all the time. You can imagine my surprise when Mr. Kibunja greeted us at the door and I saw Njambi sitting in a chair nursing an infant baby, not more than a few weeks old. I could not have recognized Njambi without her uniform had I not seen Mr. Kibunja first. Now I was seeing Njambi the mother and wife, and I still could not reconcile that in my brain. But, I got to enjoy my visit, eating some delicacies that were not available at home, mugate wa thiagi (bread and butter) topping the list. On my future errands to town, I ran all the way like was required of us, but nearing the Kibunja house, I slowed down completely, almost to a halt, hoping to find one of them outside and get invited in for a cup of tea with buttered bread. As fate would have it, that never happened.
Njambi, without realizing it, demonstrated to the OlKalou girls that we could enter any profession of our choice, including the male dominated ones like law enforcement. She made it seem “cool” and heroic to carry a gun just like the male officers did. The police job did not seem frightening back then because the only “crimes” committed in OlKalou were always alcohol related. Police used to raid Kamihehu neighborhood to flash out brewers and sellers of illicit brews. The other “criminals” were those who drunk too much and caused commotion in the town pubs. Those were thrown into the cells for being “Drunk and Disorderly” and released in the morning when they sobered up.
I dont know of any girls in OlKalou who became Police Officers but Njambi made us realize it was one of the many options availabe to us, if we chose to pursue that line of work. And for that, I thank you Njambi, Nyina wa Wairimu.
