rebecca kiarie

She Hid Her 12-Year-Old Daughter in a Ditch for Nine Months to Save Her From Boko Haram In August 2014, Zainabu Hamayaji made a decision that would keep her daughter alive but force the young girl to spend nine months hidden underground. Hassana was only 12 years old. Her mother feared that Boko Haram fighters would abduct her and force her to become a child bride. To protect her, Zainabu hid her in a deep ditch behind their home in Madagali, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Then, she did something that made the plan even more extraordinary. She pretended to be mentally ill so the insurgents would leave her family alone. When Boko Haram invaded Madagali, families faced a terrifying choice. People who tried to escape were being killed, and Zainabu witnessed the violence firsthand. Her husband was among those killed. She was left trying to protect her children in a town controlled by the same fighters she feared would take her eldest daughter away. Zainabu had heard that the insurgents were looking for young girls to marry. When they learned she had a daughter of marriageable age, they came to her home. She denied having such a daughter, but they did not believe her. They beat her repeatedly. Her shoulder was dislocated, and she lost a tooth during the attacks. Zainabu realised that simply denying Hassana's existence would not be enough. She needed to make the fighters believe there was something about her family that made it dangerous to interfere with them. So she began acting as though she had lost her sanity. She loosened her hair, stripped off her clothes and wandered around the community. She rolled in rubbish and smeared herself with urine and faeces. The woman who had once lived an ordinary life was deliberately making herself an object of avoidance. The insurgents returned repeatedly to check whether her behaviour was genuine. Each time, Zainabu continued the act. Her younger children helped her maintain the deception. When the fighters questioned them about their mother's behaviour, they insisted that she had been mentally unwell for a long time and had previously visited a psychiatric hospital. The children were frightened, but they played their part. Eventually, the insurgents began to believe the story. According to Zainabu's account, they feared that harming a mentally ill woman or taking her child could bring a curse upon them. They even left a warning on the family's house telling other fighters not to attack them. But while Zainabu was trying to convince the insurgents that she was mentally unstable, Hassana was facing a different kind of ordeal. She was living inside a ditch. Her mother had prepared the hiding place with supplies, including food, water and matches. Hassana had to cook and manage her basic needs in the confined space. She also had to find a way to dispose of her waste. For nine months, the ditch became her hiding place. She could not simply walk outside whenever she wanted. Her safety depended on remaining hidden while her mother continued the deception above ground. It was an extraordinary burden for a child who should have been able to live without fear of being abducted and forced into marriage. Zainabu kept up the act, despite the beatings and the physical injuries she had suffered. Then, in March 2015, Nigerian soldiers recaptured Madagali from Boko Haram. When the soldiers encountered Zainabu, they were suspicious. They wanted to know how she had survived in the occupied town and questioned whether she had been married to a Boko Haram fighter. She denied it and explained what she had done to protect her children. The soldiers did not immediately believe her. So she took them to the hiding place. When they opened the ditch, Hassana was there. After nine months underground, the 12-year-old girl was finally brought out of hiding. The soldiers took the family to a camp for displaced people in Gwoza, where Zainabu later told her story to journalists.

Yooooh!! She is right. The consequences of an impoverished education do not end in the classroom. They follow people into their politics, their culture and even their understanding of themselves. Bruh. Ask any comedian, musician or screenwriter how often they are told to simplify their work. Make it easier. Make it familiar. Above all, do not demand too much of the audience. There is something deeply revealing about a society in which the capacity to think is treated as an inconvenience. An audience accustomed to intellectual passivity becomes easier to entertain through recognition than discovery. Give people something that affirms their identity, flatters their prejudices or confirms their grievances. THEY WILL MISTAKE THE PLEASURE OF AGREEMENT FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF UNDERSTANDING. People only think it's propaganda if it does not affirm what they already believe. This applies no matter what part of the political spectrum they are. It's not just the industry though. Even the audience participates in it. We demand originality while remaining suspicious of anything that unsettles our convictions. The danger is, a population that grows accustomed to having its beliefs constantly affirmed may gradually lose the habit of examining them. The same person who cannot tolerate an uncomfortable idea in a film may struggle to tolerate one in public life. It's not that people have lost the capacity to think. It is that we are building a culture in which they are increasingly encouraged not to exercise it. Anyway... if you have read this far, congratulations! In an age when your attention is constantly being bought, interrupted and redirected, the ability to give an argument the time it deserves is a small but meaningful act of intellectual independence.

We thank God for 148 billion stadium

So heavy on WANTAM i even started taking one meal a day

LIGHTING UP NAIROBI

“This is not a summit of convenience. It is a summit of necessity—a summit that touches on our survival.” — PS Dr. Korir Sing’Oei Discussing the state of trust in our society, state, and world isn’t comfortable talk. It forces us to be honest, vulnerable, and face difficult realities. Key reflections from PS Dr. Korir Sing’Oei at The Trust Summit 2026: “If trust is the fabric that holds societies together, and if trust is frayed - no longer just at the margins, but at the very center - then having these sensitive conversations becomes a matter of survival.” Rebuilding trust requires moving beyond comfort zones to address the core challenges facing governance, diplomacy, and global leadership today. #TrustSummit2026 #WeavingTrust #GlobalTrust #Diplomacy