This archive report was first published on 22 August 2021.
'I wish I'd started earlier'- Wanjeri Nderu speaks on activism ¶
Wanjeri Nderu, a human rights defender, has been arrested about 13 times for her activism. She wishes she had started her career earlier, in her 20s, and now she's turning 42.
At 12, Nderu told her father she wanted to work with refugees. Her grandfather, a Mau Mau veteran, had been detained for seven years and taught her about the true history of colonialism and their country's liberation.
'It was not liberation,' she says. 'It was just a switch from white colonialists to black colonialists. We are a nation that has not been fully liberated.'
Nderu's parents encouraged her self-expression and assertiveness, and she now tries to do the same with her three children, aged 17, 13, and 9.
'It is difficult today to raise children that way,' she says. 'I try to do that with my children, but it is such a thin line between being a parent and a friend.'
Nderu has a brand of feminism that emphasizes equality of the sexes and equity. She believes that feminism should not be about hating men, but about recognizing that people, regardless of gender, can be oppressors or abusers.
'We need to say PEOPLE are trash,' she says. 'Because some of the things men do, women do too.'
Despite facing online insults and accusations of being paid by donors, Nderu remains committed to her cause. She encourages more Kenyans to speak out and actively engage in their communities to address social issues.
Published on August 22, 2021.
