She had been convicted of murder and remanded at Lang’ata Women’s Prison in Nairobi. But being underage and pregnant, she could not be jailed.

Life turned upside down. She was separated from fellow inmates being a capital offence remandee. She wore different uniform and could not interact with other inmates unless in church or special events.

Then came time to give birth. The delivery room was adjacent to that of inmates suffering with TB.

“You can picture a scenario of having new born babies whose system are still vulnerable and the next door are people with chest complications and you share some utilities like washrooms,” she narrates adding that after delivery, she could not access supplementary feeds for her baby.

Visits to the clinic involved being escorted under tight security.

Hard-core inmates

“People around the hospital could easily tell the intensity of my case, they could tell that I am among the hard-core inmates because only such were escorted by wardens of high rank.”

She was kept in a special room where she could only pass information to visitors through a block of glass with a small opening. Communication time was one to five minutes per person.

Beatrice was released in November 2011 after  serving three years in jail.

The court declared that she had acted in self-defense as evidence provided did not indicate signs of premeditated murder.

Her journey into prison began with being admitted to a school she did not want in 2005. Beatrice had  scored 406 marks with the hope of attending either Bahati or Naivasha Girls High school. Instead, her parents took her to a nearby Karemi Girls with promises to transfer her to a better school if her grades improved within two terms.

Defiant

She worked extra hard to improve but her efforts only made her parents more comfortable with the school. That was what triggered bottled fury. She became defiant and indisciplined.

“Despite giving him (father) straight A’s the entire year, I could not see him act on his promise. After four terms I became impatient. I had to find other means of getting me transferred,” she recalls, adding  that her change of behavior led to three warning letters. The fourth warning was followed by an  expulsion. She was in form two.

The hostility she received at home made her run to her elder sister’s home in Embu County. As good role model, her sister tried taking her back at home to no avail. Beatrice ran away and found a home on the streets of Embu streets and a new life that took very far-in the wrong direction.

Just before she could sink into street life, she bumped into her sister’s colleague who was a banker in Embu where she offered her shelter.

“I don’t know if he empathized or sympathized with me, but all I know he gave me what I all needed at the moment, basic needs.”

A wife at 16

Beatrice became a wife at 16. Telling her husband about it only made him hostile, turning their home into a wrestling room. Returning to a home she had escaped from was not an option. She stuck and things moved from bad to worse when  a confrontation let to murder.

It so happened that the husband was transferred to Nairobi when she was eight months pregnant. On the material day, the husband attended his nephew’s birthday party. Beatrice, who was unwell, sent her money, but later demanded it back.

“I reverted the full amount, but late at night he came back and demanded for food that I couldn’t even buy. Personally I hadn’t even eaten,” says Beatrice of what triggered an argument.

In the ensuing  confrontation her intoxicated husband picked a knife and stubbed her three times; two at the back and one on her right arm. In defense Beatrice grabbed the same knife and stubbed him back. He died in hospital two days later.

New life

Beatrice was booked in at the Buruburu Police station in 2008 and faced a murder trial at the Makadara Law courts less than two weeks later.

“I pleaded not guilty, but since I was under age, and heavily expectant, the court opted to move me to Lang’ata Women’s Prison where I stayed for three weeks before I delivered my son.”

She wished for hell

The hard life in prison made her to mature up fast, the regrets of raising a son without a father became her daily torment, the rejection she got from her in-laws made it worst especially during the hearing.

Battling stigma

‘I was shuttered when I witnessed the people I shared a meal with, laughed together and even considered as my second family giving an incriminating evidence and painting me as an evil person. It just portrayed doom in my life.”

but hope knocked in when her family (father) not only settled on hiring her a lawyer but also stood with her to the last verdict.

Beatrice later went back and cleared her secondary education. She is now pursuing bachelor of education at Kenyatta University.