By Ayub Mwangi
Rush, brush, crash, noise, congestion, and confusion defines the Likoni ferry crossing that links Mombasa Island with the mainland south.
Young and old brush shoulders without regard for age, class or gender. Occasionally, a Swahili curse word will rent the air either as a greeting or when people cross each other.
While many are in a rush to leave the ferry crossing, Alex Njogu Mathangani is at port. His ferry has docked and the Likoni ferry crossing is his ramp and gate of heaven.
For him the chaotic ferry crossing is sweet. Sweet because he started on sweets and, sweet as it is closer to his heart than home. Sweet because he has also found the sweetness of life from the ferry crossing.
He has seen the worst and best of it. At his worst, he cannot remember the number of times he slept under the ravages of the weather, with the numerous baobab trees that define the Mama Ngina drive being his roof. He cannot recall the number of people he robbed, and the amount of bhang and cigarettes he smoked while living as a vagabond.
At his best, he cannot count the amount of money that touched his palms thanks to the thousands of people who cross the ferry daily.
The story of Alex begins 47 years ago in Nyeri County. “The first whiff of difference was when someone referred to me as a Somali. By then I had not seen my mother and I knew the children I was growing up with were my brothers and sisters,” he says.
Alex reveals that he first saw his mother when he was eight years old. “She showed up with a man who I was informed was my stepfather,” He recalls noting that his mother who is of Somali origin has a story to tell about how she landed in Nyeri.
When she left Isiolo, many years ago, she was picked by a well-wisher who later turned into an abuser.
However, she ran away from the man and ended up in the streets where she was saved by another well-wisher. She would later run to Mombasa where Alex was conceived.
In the ensuing confusion, the mother took him to the Nyeri foster family where he was named Alex Njogu. She would later abandon him again and only come to pick him accompanied by a stepfather when he was already nine years old.
“My mother then separated with my stepfather, and left me at the hands of a cruel stepmother. Life for me became unbearable and my young self could not take it anymore. I dropped out of school while in standard six.” Alex, who speaks impeccable English despite being a grade six dropout recalls.
The best he could do for himself was to fend for himself. He went to the streets and started sleeping under the ravages of the weather.
“I moved to the Likoni ferry where I worked in makeshift hotels as a waiter and cleaner just to get food,” he reminisces.
He later became a tout, a job he hated because of bullying by the older boys. He got into drug and substance abuse, smoking bhang, cigarettes and alcohol to survive the harsh life. “I was a tout by day and a thug by evening. Whether by evening I had made enough or not, I would not hesitate to steal from someone; it was thrilling,” he reminisces.
Nevertheless, there is nothing too broken that it cannot be fixed and Alex clearly recollects when his life started turning around.
The first turning point is when he met a woman who wanted help to sell her commodities. While his friends declined the job, he took it and within two hours, he had made 1500/. The woman was happy that he did not steal from her.
He became a regular and was tasked with supervising a team. “I graduated from taking cheap liquor and started patronizing bars in conformity with my new found status,” he says with a chuckle, adding that that the job helped him to buy his first mattress that he put under his makeshift baobab tree roof home.
His second turning point was when he got saved. He recalls that one day in 2013 as they were smoking bhang with a friend, he saw a woman whom he wanted to steal from. He did not, but he would later get drowsy and sleep at the Likoni ferry roundabout.
“I woke up in a daze only to find the woman preaching. I was in another world but at least I can remember a friend pushed me when the preacher made the altar call.”
When she prayed, the crave for cigarettes and alcohol disappeared. “It was like a heavy load was lifted off my shoulders”
The preacher asked the new convert to look for a church of choice and he chose Deliverance Church Makupa now DCI Mombasa City He would grow in faith and get married to his lovely wife Jane Wangui. Because of his status he never revealed to the church where he lived and would occasionally walk from the ferry to Makupa for church services.
When he wanted to marry, none of the girls in the church would touch him. “Every girl I approached and told them that I sell sweets declined me because they did not see a future in me. I was heartbroken and I went back to Nyeri.”
He went to Karatina in Nyeri County where he met his wife Pastor Jane Wangui and who despite coming from a well off family did not judge him.
He recalls how on the day of paying dowry he did not have enough money. But as fate would have it, he paid more than he expected. As a married man he moved to Mtwapa, he had a responsibility to feed his young family and he started doing various businesses at the ferry.
“At the ferry, I tried several businesses, some of which collapsed but I kept trying. My breakthrough was in 2019 when many of the businesses that I started gave me my first million,” says the father of one.
Alex says that he was also able to trace his mother whom she helped bring to salvation. “This was my most joyous moment to see my mother, a Somali and an alcoholic come to Christ.”
When he looks back at his life, Alex notes that he would not have survived were it not for the mercy of God. “I was a complete wreck. Sleeping under the baobab tree was in-dignifying. You were at the mercy of the weather, police would arrest you at any time and there was a high risk of HIV-AIDS because of the unprotected sex among the vagabonds”
The risk of being jailed was looming and if a crime happened anywhere in town, the first place police looked for suspects was among the vagabond community. But over the years, Alex felt that God wanted him to help many other people who could be living a hopeless life like he did.
“When I look back at my life I can only see the mercies of God. I was undeserving, unqualified and if God did not touch my life, probably by now I would be dead,” he says as he battles a tear off his eyes.
“My mother and I were nothing. I had no father, uncle, auntie, sister or cousin. I had nothing. I did not have an origin but today I have something that I can hold onto. I was feared, ostracized, cursed, but God accepted me just the way I was, washed, cleaned, made me new.”
