She escaped murder three times to become peace ambassador

Christine Natuch displays one of her video CDs. [PHOTO: KEVIN TUNOI/STANDARD]

When life gave Christine Natuch a lemon, she decided to make lemonade.

Natuch, a resident of West Pokot County, has thwarted three murder attempts by her father. And with her physical disability, she has risen to become a peace champion and promising gospel artiste.

The 26-year-old has defied all odds to become one of the most vocal peace promoters in the perennial ethnic conflicts between the Turkana and her Pokot communities and has as well been empowering the physically challenged to stand firm for their rights.

When she was only five,  her father attempted to strangle her after realising she had contracted polio, which paralysed her body from the waist downwards denying her the opportunity to walk.

"He told my mother before kicking us out of his home, that I was a liability and would not bring him wealth through dowry because I was crippled," says Natuch.

It is after reality hit the father that her daughter will always depend on walking support that he disowned her and divorced the mother, for siring a crippled child that did not want to be associated with.

cattle rustling

To add salt to injury, her father, who was a renowned cattle rustler, tracked her to their new settlement along the Pokot-Uganda border and attempted to kill her in front of her mother. Luckily, the gun technically jammed, saving her from the being killed.

She currently has over 50 unrecorded songs in her black note book which she composed while in primary school. The theme of all the songs lean heavily on the need for society to maintain peaceful coexistence and shun cattle rustling.

Natuch's undying spirit, has proved her critics wrong and she has lived the adage that 'disability is not a inability'.

She says she got inspired to compose songs by the dreadful lifestyle that her father lived as a renowned kingpin of cattle rustling in his community.

"He was feared by both communities due for his expertise in cattle rustling and his heinous acts saw him detested and loved in equal measure," she says of her now deceased father.

Natuch's immobility was a great concern to her mother because she was not able to access education like other children of her age.

Natuch, however, caught the attention of two American nationals who had visited the region and came to her rescue by taking her to Kijabe Mission hospital for specialised treatment.

"When Harry and his wife came to the region, they brought a ray of hope to my life as they took me to hospital, settled my operation bills and  fixed steel bars around my legs in order to assist my mobility," she says.

She says her experience with other patients changed her perception towards people living with disability in the society.

"My stay at Kijabe opened my eyes to realise that there are a number of people that have more challenging disabilities than mine and are living a positive life," she says.

Natuch enrolled at Kameri Primary School and later Kampala Talents College, Mukono for her O' levels in 2006. She has advance her eduction because of lack of fees.