Imagine this: You are a young fellow who has just completed form four and secured a permanent and pensionable civil service job at the agriculture ministry where you rub shoulders with the high and mighty and secure active employment till 2062.
While you handle the job that pays you Ksh40,000 every month, you also get to study a degree of your choice since unlike your peers you can afford to do that.
Ten years later, you decide to hunt for green pastures, quit your job and finally vie for a position that might see you earning Ksh144,375, only for it to flop.
Well, this is the cause and story of Agnes Nkanya, a 30-year-old Member of the County Assembly (MCA)aspirant from Tharaka Nithi.
When Nkanya quit her well-paying permanent job, she was loaded with hopes and dreams for a better catch. Having risen to the pinnacle of her career as a public servant, she was determined to utilise her skills in something new, being MCA for Magumoni ward.
She quit her job and vied for the position which attracted six other contenders, her being the only woman and youth. Out of those she emerged as position three in the elections.
Having spent resources from her hard-earned money to campaign for the position, Nkanya who was once a vibrant public servant has now been reduced to a shadow of her former self.
Owing to the financial dent the campaigns cost her, she has resorted to working as a construction site worker (Mjengo) where she earns Ksh500 on a good day.
On top of that, she also works at a carwash to make ends meet for her daughter, who she raises all by herself.
While speaking to the Nation, an exhausted Nkanya who is a single mother intimates that she was forced to try the construction job, despite having no skills. She opines that it has been a struggle owing to the heavy work which is usually presumed for men.
She revealed that she vied for the MCA position under the Devolution party led by Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki.
“I was among the frontier youths who were looking for women and numbers for Ruto to be able to have a footing in this county of ours, but unfortunately, we young people didn’t have people to hold our hands,
“At this moment I am sharing my pain, not for pity, I am sharing my struggles so that someone else should not g through whatever I have gone through. In politics you spend a lot of money, you spend your savings. I have nothing to fall back into,” she added.
Nkanya has now made an appeal to President William Ruto to appoint young people who campaigned for Kenya Kwanza.
At the same time, she has requested Ruto and Kindiki to help her get back on her foot by re-employing her in the Ministry of Agriculture.
“I cannot pretend I am not suffering. I plead with the President, Prof Kindiki and Governor Njuki to help me please,” she pleaded.
