Reformed criminal Wilson Kanoga now a motivational speaker

Wilson Kanoga during the interview. [PHOTOS: BEVERLYNE MUSILI/STANDARD]

By BRIGID CHEMWENO

NAIROBI, KENYA: He started off life as a little waif, strayed to the underworld, luckily hit the reform path and now is a motivational speaker.

For a five-year-old boy abandoned in the streets of Nairobi, life was torturous. But since tide and time waits for no man, the stray quickly learnt how to survive.

The little Wilson Kanoga used whatever tools fate hurled his way and embarked on a roller coaster to hell and back.

He lived on the brink, he used all weapons known to man in his quest to stay afloat since the city streets were a jungle where only the mighty survived.

Using violence, Kanoga wrote his name in blood as he used firearms and at times a garrote to rob his victims.

To the police, he had an unfailing weapon – human waste – which made him “untouchable”.

And for almost a dozen times, Kanoga escaped death by a whisker as he plied his trade in the mid-1990s as a violent robber who at times followed his victims to the grave and stole the caskets.

On May 20, 2001, he was accosted by an irate mob after he was caught stealing electronics in Huruma, Nairobi, with four accomplices.

The four were killed on the spot but Kanoga sustained serious injuries. The mob concluded that he had died and did not set him ablaze although he had been doused with petrol.

“After some time, I came back to my senses but I found myself in a very cold environment. I thought it was Globe Cinema roundabout and I continued sleeping,” he adds.

The following day, he says, a man he later learnt was a mortuary attendant was preparing to wash him.

“I asked him what I was doing in a cold place but to my surprise they all ran away,” he adds.

Kanoga left City Mortuary and went back to his stealing ways that landed him in Kamiti Maximum Prison. Since he was underage, he was transferred to Lower Kabete Approved School.

“This marked a turning point in my life and I was later taken to Pastor Pius Muiru Maximum Children’s Home. Here I received spiritual guidance and my life changed,” he says.

It was in 2004 when he was taken to the children’s home and after reforming, he saw the need to pursue education.

CHILDREN’S HOME

“I requested the children’s home administration to allow me to go to Standard Eight. I joined Kahawa Garrison Primary School and scored 305 marks in KCPE. I later proceeded to JG Kiereni High School where I did my KCSE in 2008 and scored A- (minus),” says Wilson.

Kanoga has shrugged off his violent past and, at 30, has secured a scholarship with Presbyterian University where he is pursuing psychology in counselling.

He is also studying sociology and criminology at the University of Nairobi where he will graduate in June this year.

He has established a foundation dubbed Transformed to Transform, which is in the process of being registered.

Kanoga says he has rescued 156 street families and taken them to different children’s homes in Nairobi where he is their mentor.

He also offers motivational talks to prisoners.

He has also adopted six orphaned children, with two being HIV positive and one an asthmatic.

SCHOOL HEADS

Although he is now reformed, he says some school heads are reluctant to allow him to talk to their students for fear that he might influence them negatively.

At some point, as he narrated his ordeal, he could not stop tears rolling down his cheeks

“I don’t want to remember those things but I know God has forgiven me and he has a purpose in my life. All my colleagues whom we robbed and killed with have died but God knew why he kept me – so that I can transform the lives of others through my own experience,” he says.

After every arrest, he says, he became a hardened criminal and death was nothing to be feared.

“We could strike in the evening, where we sprayed the victims with sleep-inducing drugs. We could then proceed to enter the house, prepare our supper, eat and leave with their belongings when they are still asleep,” Wilson told The Standard.

He claims and a gang of seven robbers attempted to steal the casket of a prominent politician in Milimani Estate in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County. He lived to tell the story of his escape, his left leg permanently damaged by the bullets unleashed by the police who thwarted the robbery. Five of his accomplices were not as lucky as they were killed.