Strip clubs, drugs, guns, death: Reformed criminal Ann Wambui has seen and done it all

Ann Wambui’s life has not been an easy one, the mother of five from Huruma in Nairobi revealed as she opened up on the turmoil she has had to endure.

Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV’s ‘Shajara’ program with Lulu Hassan on Friday morning, Wambui disclosed that she has previously been forced to work in strip clubs, sell drugs, and even ferry guns to criminals all in a bid to put food on the table for herself and her children.

“I lost my parents when I was in Class Five and was left in the care of my grandmother. She was, however, not capable of taking care of my brother and I due to alcoholism. So I moved from one house to another and eventually ran away and started my life in Nairobi,” she narrated.

“I would ferry guns to criminals in different parts of the country and get paid once the mission was done. One of my friends was shot dead and that was when I quit, I did not want to die. So I moved to drugging people with the intention of robbing them.”

She added: “When I got to Nairobi, I moved in with a man and he assumed his role as my husband but he left me because I could not have children. I started hustling and because I did not have formal education or any skills, I would do whatever came my way.”

According to Wambui, she started working as a stripper in night clubs on Park Road to maintain her life, and that was where she met the man who would later become her second husband.

As fate would have it, however, the man later died and left her with a new-born baby. Today, Wambui has five children, all with different fathers.

“He was a good man who was gunned down by police on claims that he was a wanted thug. I went to Saudi Arabia for two years, but my boss sent me back to Kenya after I got a Flu that they suspected might have been Covid,” she went on.

Coming back home from Saudi was not easy, according to her she had no source of income and faced stigmatization fuelled by the death of her husband; some people even believed that she was left with her husband’s gun from his alleged life of crime.

“People were scared of me, they said I was a thief just like my husband, they would distance themselves from me. I remember women would use another route when they saw me because they thought I would rob them. I started selling bhang to support my family but stopped after being warned by the Chief,” she said.

Today, she has no means to take care of her family, all thanks to the recent wave of anti-government demonstrations that swept across the country.

“I used to have a hotel in Huruma but everything was looted during demonstration,” she added.