For an 81-year-old lady, self-defense is the last thing on their mind, but for Beatrice Nyariara and her group of 20 women from Korogocho slums, it is a necessary skill they must have.
Nyariara trains a group of elderly women aged between 55 and 90 years known as Shosho Jikinge on important skills to defend themselves from assault, robbery, and other crimes that are rampant within the locality.
However, for the elderly lady, her quest to learn and educate other women on self-defense goes back to 2007 when they found Shosho Jikinge at a time when attacks on the elderly were rampant.
In an interview with The Guardian, Nyariara stated that they started the group after realising that many elderly women in the area had become easy targets of abuse.
Nyariara underwent training for six months by volunteer martial arts enthusiasts and had to wait until 2014 to assume leadership of the group that now depends on her lessons to defend themselves from would-be attackers.
The 81-year-old revealed that she has benefited from her self-defense skills as she used them to fend off a man who had tried breaking into her house.
“I warned him that if I opened the door, one of us would wind up in a police cell and the other in the mortuary.
“He assumed I would open the door and wait for him to get in, but I opened it and poked his eyes with my fingers. I followed him and punched him in his private parts.
“He started screaming ‘Granny don’t kill me’. When word went across Korogocho, all the intruders started fearing me,” Nyariara narrated.
Other members of the group equally highlighted the importance of the lessons offered to them by the granny.
For instance, 80-year-old Gladys Wanjiku, indicated that elderly women in the area were targeted because many of them were widows who lived by themselves.
“Attackers follow elderly women to their houses during the day to see where they live, then return at night.
"Locking the door doesn't work because they come to the house and rip off parts of the wall because it's made of recycled tins or corrugated iron,” she stated.
Nyariara further noted that Joining kickboxing was also a form of exercise for women, many of who had health issues, such as arthritis and blood pressure.
Aside from self-defense training, the women also run a savings group where they contribute Ksh20 every week an amount that some of them found difficult to raise because of lacking a steady source of income.
“This money comes in handy when a member is unwell or loses a family member.
"Unfortunately, none of us have been included in the government's senior citizen cash transfer program, despite qualifying, so some people are not able to come for training because they don't have food," Nyariara stated.
