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MY STORY: Being a Nairobi MCA is not a walk in the park


After he got elected as the Baba Dogo Member of County Assembly, 38 year-old Shadrack Juma thought being a politician was a walk in the park.

First mistake. He thought giving out money to his constituents was the way to solve their problems.

His phone is always buzzing as “his people” ask for all sorts of help from ambulance services, to settling family disputes and rent.

His entire salary was being channeled to help his constituents.

NO RENT

Mr Juma, in an interview with Nairobi News,  recalled one such incident while at City Hall. A family from his ward walked to him and told him that they did not have money to pay for rent. The man of the house had been sacked and the family was to be kicked out in the cold if they did not pay the rent. He withdrew the last of his salary and gave it to them.

“The man was narrating the story while the wife and the kid cried uncontrollably, I could not help but give them the remaining money on my bank account that month,” said Mr Juma.

The soft spoken MCA said that the next month, the same family came for help but he declined, telling them that they should have organized themselves better.

He said that the incident made him think how better he can help families in his ward  to become self-reliant.

Baba Dogo is an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) with companies that produce finished clothes for export. He went to the companies and inquired why they did not employ people from his ward.

NOT TRAINED

“The management told me that my people are not trained and could not even stitch a straight line and therefore could not qualify to work for them,”said Mr Juma.

The MCA then walked straight to Family Bank and got a loan of Sh600,000 in 2014. He used the amount to buy 15 sewing machines, rent a room and hire a trainer in dressmaking. That is how the Shadrack Juma Foundation was born.

The foundation, located in Riverside in Baba Dogo, is a tiny room that has created job opportunity to over 850 youth and women so far.

The training  takes four weeks and residents are taught the basics in dressmaking before being employed by the EPZ companies.

“Some of the people have moved to Juja where they have been employed by other EPZ companies there. They can now take care of themselves without asking for help,” said Mr Juma.

BIGGEST BENEFICIARIES

Maximilia Kubochi, the trainer, said housewives were the biggest beneficiaries of the program.

“I always get a request from the human resource manager and the employment is on first come basis, those who enrolled first are given priorities, “said Ms Kubochi.

She said that none of her students has ever been rejected and the demand for more workers has increased to between  20 to 50 monthly.

 

 

Shadrack Juma has also set up a library in his ward where youths in the ward study during their free time.

 

He has already acquired 24 computers for the library through a partnership with his friends from Norway. He also wants to start a project on garbage collection to create employment to youths.