Life crisis forced Mary Consolata Wangui to live as a boy for six years. Born in Naivasha, Mary if from a family of five.
Life was all smooth until her father passed on plunging their life into misery, as their mother, struggled to fend for her family.
Together with her sister, they dropped out of school to help their mother put food on the table, their tender age notwithstanding.
Speaking to Afrimax English, on YouTube, Mary recounted how she always believed that life in Nairobi was an easy ride. She hit the road, to give it a trial, as she sought ways of saving her family from the shackles of poverty.
On arriving in Nairobi, Mary was not amused. She learned of sexual exploitation of women on the streets. It was a dive into the deep see, a den of sharks.
Mary would change her name to Jimmy. She dressed, walked, and behaved like a boy for the street boys to spare her.
She survived on begging and used the money she collected to buy drugs and pay for movies.
Soon, puberty kicked in. Mary could no longer hide her gender identity. She hit a dead end, as her body rapidly changed to hand her a feminine figure she dreaded.
She was afraid She decided to go back home. On arriving, no one recognized her for she had left Naivasha at a very young age.
Life in Naivasha was however so hard promoting her to go back to Nairobi. On arriving, the street boys were surprised to see that Jimmy had undergone some sort of metamorphosis to become a girl.
She however explained to them her reason for changing identity but little did she know that it would mark the beginning of her woes.
On the same day evening, she was sexually assaulted by a gang of street boys and was lucky to be save by a security officer who was on patrol.
“I can't tell how many boys they were. I even got pregnant but could not tell who the father was. This made me go back home,” she stated.
Her mother took her to the hospital to welcome her newborn but was detained at the facility because of the hospital bills that had accumulated.
“I couldn’t stay at the hospital any longer. I approached the senior manager and explained to him my situation. He cleared my bill and took me home. Upon arriving, he was devastated after seeing the state of our lives as we would sleep on sacks. He bought mattresses, bed covers and food for us,” Mary explained.
When the baby was two months old, life pushed her to go back to Nairobi. Four years later, the script was the same. She conceived and went back home.
“I didn't stay home for long. This time after coming back to the city, I met a lady who decided to host me. She introduced me to prostitution. We would live the kids at home alone as we go to our prostitution business,” she explained.
Life took a different turn after she met a client who promised to pay Ksh2000.
“He forced me to sleep with him without protection after pointing a gun at me. Later he confessed to being HIV positive and was on a mission to revenge because he was also infected by a prostitute,” she stated.
Mary visited a hospital immediately and was put on medication. Months later, she tested negative for HIV.
She went back to Naivasha where she sells plastics and scrap metals for survival.
