After the Hajj, God blessed him with a first born daughter, Hamisa Maalim Zaja, at an advanced age of almost 70 years. This is after trying for a baby with 62 other women. That was in 1970.
Living in Mvita subcounty’s Majengo area, life was shaping up to be what Maalim had missed out on, but disaster struck nine months after Zaja was born.
She fell sick and nothing, including traditional healing methods, could treat her.
She had been struck by polio, then a strange disease that few knew anything about, which paralysed her left leg from the knee downwards.
Then the trial and error methods began, which saw her ‘admitted’ at the Port Reitz Polio Clinic for two years, undergoing surgery after surgery.
When it became apparent she could not regain normal use of her leg, Zaja was enrolled at the Port Reitz School for the Physically Challenged for her primary education in 1981.
This brought friction between her father Maalim and her maternal grandmother, who accused Maalim of ‘dumping’ her at a boarding facility after praying for a child for a long time.
In 1989, she joined Mama Ngina Girls High School in Mombasa where she had to overcome another challenge.
The school was not friendly to the physically challenged and this made life difficult for Zaja.
However, her innovativeness in solving problems and tackling challenges, which had been manifesting for a long time now, kicked in.
“On my first day at school at 4 pm, the bell rang. Unbeknown to me, the bell was for the students to gather and fetch water. Since Mama Ngina, unlike Port Reitz, is not a physically handicapped friendly school, I had to device creative means of going through the school chores like fetching water.
“So in exchange for my classmates getting the water for me, I offered to braid their hair on weekends. This worked. Since then, innovative approach to issues has been my stock-in-trade. My disability has not prevented me from being a human rights defender,” Zaja said.
When boys were eyeing and seducing other girls, Zaja was not given as much as a glance.
It is this that made her to finally decide she would stand up for those that society does not care about.
This made her work even harder in her chores and books, getting good grades, and trying not to feel out of place.
“When I got my first job, some of the boys started taking an interest in me. Suitors now came, and I played hard to get because deep down, I felt they were only after me because I was working and making money,” Zaja said.
The 54-year-old who is married and has two children, has worked hard to uplift the standards of living for the physically handicapped, youth and women, especially from Majengo.
But why Majengo?
Majengo is a cosmopolitan area with so many urban challenges. It hosts people from different backgrounds and religions.
“It’s a place where conflict cannot miss,” Zaja said.
She started her peace-building venture in 2005 when she delved into the world of empowerment.
“My work is to empower and help initiate tangible income generating projects that enhance people’s lives,” she said.
She helped build a resource centre in Majengo that annually churns out more than 1,500 youth, women and persons living with disability after empowerment.
“They come out with different life skills that focus on building their livelihoods,” Zaja said.
In 2022, Lely Mwanaidi, a beneficiary, walked out of the resource centre with a sewing machine which she used to start her business after acquiring dress-making skills at the Majengo Resource Centre.
Her work in Majengo, once the bedrock of violence in Mombasa, especially at the height of Kenya’s anti-terror war, has seen her clash and make friends with police officers.
“I have always been vocal about the problems in the community. This has made me the community’s go-to person whenever there is human rights violation especially by the police.
The constant interaction with security agencies and government officials also helped in resolving a lot of cases, and reuniting families.
She said the youth in Majengo, like others in different parts of the country, lack opportunities for meaningful life, making them easy targets for people with selfish interests.
“Given a chance, the youth in Majengo and other parts of the country have no reason to join gangs or attack people. They can be rescued from crime and other extremist radical groups,” she said.
Zaja said she focuses on transforming people from being less productive to being a valuable person in society.
“A person of value, is focused and would always make and maintain peace. Conflict comes when people have lost hope. But I give hope for a better future to the people,” she said.
It is this peace-building and empowerment work that saw her efforts recognised by the United States Institute for Peace, based in Washington DC.
Zaja was one of four women in the world who were nominated for and won the Women Building Peace Award 2023 by USIP for her work in empowering youth, women and persons living with disability.
She was invited to the US where she received the award on March 1 last year.
The award is a great recognition for Kenyan peace-builders, women and especially persons with disability.
“This means Kenya is a country that is recognised for peace and should be an example of peace to other nations amid the conflicts in many parts of the world,” Zaja said.
Her mission, she says, does not stop there.
“This award has given me new impetus to help even more women, youth and persons with disability and to ensure the world is a better place to live in,” she said.
