It was on September 2020 at the height of Covid 19 lockdown when 20-year Juliet, not her real name escaped lynching following an attempted theft of a mobile phone at a shop in the sprawling Kaptembwo slums of Nakuru.

She had decided to steal the mobile phone from her neighbour’s shop which she had intended to sell in order to get money to feed her ferocious cocaine addiction.

In her assessment, the phone was valued at Sh 300 which could have been enough to purchase a dose of the drug that sold at Sh 200 per dose.

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Little did she know that the shop owner was around and was monitoring her moves. Immediately she got hold of the phone, the owner raised an alarm and the members of the public came to his aid.

Within minutes, she was already on the ground dealing with blows and kicks from the irate members of the public.

As the kicks increased, Juliet could not help but think what would become of her barely six-month old son that she had left in the house.

Fortunately, members of the dreaded confirm gang to which she belonged arrived at the scene.

In a bid to rescue her, they caused a commotion by trying to engage those who were beating her. In the melee, she got an opportunity to hop onto a standby motorbike belonging to one the members and drove away.

Yes it was narrow escape. However, it was not a new incident to her.

Speaking to Mtaa Wangu, Juliet reveals that this is just part of the occupational hazards that she and her colleagues deal with from time to time since joining the gang.

But how did she get to this point?

Well, Juliet was brought up by her grandmother in the slum after both her parents passed on 20 years ago.

“My grand mother took care of me and took me through school. My dream was to become a military officer or study nursing,” she says softly.

However, while in form 3, she met a girl who she admired.

“She was beautiful, dressed nicely and had all the freedom that she wanted including having a boyfriend. We became friends and it felt nice being friends with someone who appeared to live a fancy lifestyle,” says Juliet.

The girl introduced her to drug abuse and she started using alcohol, bang and cocaine while still in school. As expected, her education deteriorated drastically which was reflected in her national exam of 2019 where she scored a D+.

This did not bother her too much as she was already hooked into the drugs.

“I used to spend the savings from my transport money and part of the school fees to acquire the drugs."

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By the time she was sitting for the exams, Juliet was already initiated into the gang and had become one of the babes to the gang members.

She joined a group of young girls aged between 14 and 25 referred to as the ‘queens’ in the cult.

These queens were revered by some of their peers for their bad girl lifestyles and they rule the estates breaking the law at will with an assured backing of their male gangsters.

The girls would easily unleash terror of unimaginable magnitude at the slightest provocation.

“In the gang’s den, every member's objective was to remain high at all times which means one has to get the drug at all cost. Getting a cocaine injection came before anything else.”

The girls allowed the gang members to date amongst themselves, easing the hustle of having an outsider who they may not trust.

When needed, the gang members would recruit more girls using the existing ones, by first hooking them to cocaine abuse the same way Juliet was led into the gang.

“It feels nice being in the gang dating someone who understands how you feel and has similar needs to you. We would share our private lives with our members and always feel at home,” she continues.

However, the roles are shared equally as each member irrespective of the gender is required to find ways of getting money to support the drug addiction.

One dose of cocaine according to her goes for Sh 200 while one person may need at least 10 doses a day which meant more effort needed to be put towards getting money for the drug.

“Those who date would share the spoils of the loot amongst themselves, depending on who succeeds first. One would do anything as long as you get the money for the day,” reveals Juliet.

The men would participate in armed robberies, theft, muggings, mobile money frauds and burglaries while the women engaged in theft, prostitution and spiking of drinks.

The women would rent a room where they would carry out prostitution.

It was in the process that she got pregnant with her current baby, whose father she cannot tell.

“When you are high, the gang members rape you while unconscious and when you regain conscious, the focus will be how to get the money for another dose.”

Amidst all this, Juliet decided to reform when her son reached two years and made a personal decision to take care of the child.

“I knew in two years my son would be joining school so I had to stop the drugs and start saving for his education. I thus started casual jobs to save the money. I also moved away from the house we had jointly rented to elsewhere.

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Joseph Openda