Beauty queen spearheads anti-jiggers campaign

Cecilia Mwangi shuns flashy living to fight jiggers among the poor and suffering.

By ODUOR JAGERO
Published on August 19, 2009

Cecilia Mwangi donating medicine

Julius Maina, an innocent child from the tiny village of Gituge, Maragua District, Kenya, is HIV positive. He did not get the virus from engaging in sexual practices or sharing syringes. Maina shared a jigger-removing pin with his HIV-positive mother.

Such is the extent to which villages in Kenya are suffering from a tiny insect that is barely visible to the naked human eye. The jigger, an angular headed round sac, the shape of a tiny pea, has disabled children, forced some out of school, and killed dozens.

Celia Mwangi decided to intervene.

Denied by MPs, administration authorities, and other leaders who thought that acknowledging the jigger problem was an embarrassment, Mwangi took it upon herself to tackle the problem.

Friends and classmates wondered why a young reigning national queen – Miss Kenya – could degrade herself traversing the country, talking about the traditionally embarrassing topic of jiggers.

“People think that opting to be Miss this or that means getting married to someone rich, but I knew that being a beauty queen gives you an opportunity to bring change. To be a voice for the voiceless,” says the 26-year-old computer support engineer, who works at the Internet gateway provider InterSat.

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It is 11.30 a.m. The weather at Nairobi’s Westlands is damp and the woodland that surrounds the nearby Nairobi Museum adds to the chill. Prosperity Building towers across the road from CFC Bank. Satellite pictures, Apollo and crew jetting to the moon in 1969, rocket heads, and satellite dishes adorn the reception at Mwangi’s office.

The tiles are beautiful, the inflorescent tubes glow with splendor. For a moment you wonder how the jigger question intrudes into this spotless environment. As she comes out of her office, headed to the boardroom, you see the flawless beauty – high set and perfectly yellow-penciled eyebrows, the sexy and searching eyes behind a pair of Gio Ferrari spectacles. Today, she is wearing a jungle green pantsuit, a yellow blouse matched with lacy yellow low-heeled and yellow pendant.

Her fingers are swaddled in silver and gold rings.

Cecilia Mwangi

“As a young girl I had passion for pausing for pictures. I had passion for fashion and when I was in second year at the university, I modeled and won… I remember crying the whole night. It was the best feeling in my life,” Mwangi says.

Winning a beauty pageant – becoming Miss Kenya – she says, gave her the determination and assurance that she could do a lot for herself and for the people around her. As a reigning Miss Kenya, she had things to do during her reign. This would mostly be social work.

“After being crowned Miss Kenya, I used to be in Mukuru Kayaba slums helping build morale of young girls, showing them that they could make it in life, you know. I organized ‘Miss Mukuru’ before getting into charity work with the Voiceless Child [a Non Governmental Organization] in Kibera slums,” she remembers.

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During this time, a social worker by the name Stanley Kamau had gone to his rural village for Christmas holidays. This was in 2006. Kamau says he organized a party for his relatives and neighbors. But something disturbed him during this fete. Some people he had expected to show up never turned up.

Fumigating

Kamau was later shocked to learn that these people had been infected by jiggers to the point that they were completely unable to move.

“I decided to visit one of the families called the Githeres. This family of seven was all grounded. I went to another family, the Koigis. Five kids were grounded,” Kamau recalls.

It was in the third home that he came to meet Maina, who had contracted the HIV virus because of sharing a pin, the only tool they could use to relieve their toes and nails of jiggers.

“These kids were not going to school, their parents could not go to the farm,” Kamau says.

Kamau, distraught about what he had witnessed, decided to seek help from Maragua District Hospital. But he was told that they had no medication for jiggers since no one from the village had ever reported a single case of jigger infection.

“These people were embarrassed about these insects. They were in a state of denial,” Mwangi says. “Political leaders and neighbors deny that this is happening,” Kamau concurs.

When Kamau returned to Nairobi, he called a few well-known friends and those working in the media.

“I met a gentleman called Stanley Kamau who worked for a small NGO called Ahadi Trust Kenya. He told me about the jigger menace,” Mwangi explains. The next day she and Kamau hit the road to Mathioya Constituency, the home tuff of the once powerful legislator and Minister for a long time, Joseph Kamotho.

“We did a survey and in one school alone, Karugi Primary, we counted 800 kids with jigger-infested nails and toes. It was serious,” Mwangi says. Touched by the suffering, she decided to do something to help tackle the problem.

Jigger infected hands

“On March 31, 2007, we called our first press conference to tell Kenya about the suffering of fellow Kenyans.” Unfortunately, Mwangi recalls, the media carried the story the next day, which was April fools day.

One week later Mwangi talked with a nurse at M.P. Shah Hospital who advised her that the jigger problem was purely hygienic and therefore that it could be dealt with by soaking the feet and toes in water.

Together with Ahadi Trust Kenya, headed by its founder and CEO, Kamau, Mwangi organized a trip to Karungi Primary School. Armed with Savlon and other disinfectants, they soaked hundreds of nails and toes. This was followed by a session on sensitization.

“We gave them basic information on hygiene,” Mwangi says. Separately, Kamau explains, “Our sensitization is two-fold. The first one is intervention, where we treat the infected parts of the body by washing and disinfecting them… Secondly there is the preventive measure; this is where we fumigate the house to kill the jiggers hidden in the dust and walls.”

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Kericho victim in KGH

Balancing a busy daily job of supporting customers of InterSat, and her role in the anti-jigger campaign, Mwangi says managing her time well gives her the opportunity to juggle both balls. “It is about what you want to do to others against your social and professional life,” she observes.

Support that Ahadi Trust Kenya has had is huge and encouraging. Apart from treating and preventing jiggers, the project has brought companies on board, assisting in different ways. This has gone a long way in treating and rehabilitating those infected and affected by the jigger menace.

By 2008 they had had 1000 success stories of people cured from jiggers and back to living their normal lives. “Citi Bank donated 1000 beehives and honey to the people. This we did to help them get back to farming, to give them something to do. And now they earn from bee farming,” Mwangi says.

The children have been rehabilitated back to school, with books, shoes and other amenities provided. Sometimes even food is provided. All these have been made possible by the passion of a girl who had the choice of media limelight of fashion and catwalk.

The last born in a family of four, Mwangi was born in a middle class family in Buruburu estate in Nairobi. She attended Agakhan Primary before joining State House Girls.

She then enrolled for a course in Computer Technology at Jomo Kenyatta University. Cecilia is in a relationship with a man she only says is “big” in the public eye.

The anti-jigger campaign has now become a national social project. Currently, there is a campaign across the country to sensitize people suffering from jiggers to come out and get help. Just like the name ‘Ahadi’ – promise – suggests, Mwangi promises the sufferers a happy and healthier life.

Reach Oduor Jagero at koduor@eafricainfocus.com