1 00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:04,336 When I heard those bars 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:05,600 slam hard, 3 00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:09,840 I knew it was for real. 4 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:13,480 I feel confused. 5 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:16,760 I feel betrayed. 6 00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:20,680 I feel overwhelmed. 7 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:24,480 I feel silenced. 8 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:27,080 What just happened? 9 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:30,680 How could they send me here? 10 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:34,040 I don't belong here. 11 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:39,256 How could they make such a huge mistake 12 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:43,680 without any repercussions whatsoever to their actions? 13 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,496 I see large groups of women 14 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:50,856 in tattered uniforms 15 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:55,416 surrounded by huge walls and gates, 16 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:58,736 enclosed by iron barbed wires, 17 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:02,080 and I get hit by an awful stench, 18 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:04,400 and I ask myself, 19 00:01:05,519 --> 00:01:07,320 how did I move 20 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:13,160 from working in the respected financial banking sector, 21 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:17,120 having worked so hard in school, 22 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,576 to now being locked up 23 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:23,816 in the largest correctional facility 24 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:25,920 for women in Kenya? 25 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:29,656 My first night 26 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:33,816 at Langata Women Maximum Security Prison 27 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:35,040 was the toughest. 28 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,456 In January of 2009, 29 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:44,136 I was informed that I had handled a fraudulent transaction unknowingly 30 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:45,960 at the bank where I worked. 31 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:51,296 I was shocked, scared and terrified. 32 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:55,280 I would lose a career that I loved passionately. 33 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,376 But that was not the worst. 34 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:04,520 It got even worse than I could have ever imagined. 35 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:07,520 I got arrested, 36 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:10,576 maliciously charged 37 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:11,840 and prosecuted. 38 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:19,016 The absurdity of it all was the arresting officer 39 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:24,176 asking me to pay him 10,000 US dollars 40 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:26,480 and the case would disappear. 41 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:29,040 I refused. 42 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:33,296 Two and a half years on, 43 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:35,056 in and out of courts, 44 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,536 fighting to prove my innocence. 45 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:41,536 It was all over the media, 46 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:45,696 in the newspapers, TV, radio. 47 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:47,280 They came to me again. 48 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,576 This time around, said to me, 49 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:56,080 "If you give us 50,000 US dollars, 50 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:00,280 the judgement will be in your favor," 51 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:05,560 irrespective of the fact that there was no evidence whatsoever 52 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:08,696 that I had any wrongdoing 53 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,000 on the charges that I was up against. 54 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:15,736 I remember the events 55 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:17,616 of my conviction 56 00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:20,216 six years ago 57 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:21,920 as if it were yesterday. 58 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:26,896 The cold, hard face of the judge 59 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:29,696 as she pronounced my sentence 60 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:31,880 on a cold Thursday morning 61 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:36,040 for a crime that I hadn't committed. 62 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:39,136 I remember holding 63 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:42,080 my three-month-old beautiful daughter 64 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:45,400 whom I had just named Oma, 65 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:50,736 which in my dialect means "truth and justice," 66 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:55,616 as that was what I had longed so much for 67 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:56,840 all this time. 68 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:01,576 I dressed her in her favorite purple dress, 69 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:05,040 and here she was, about to accompany me 70 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:08,576 to serve this one-year sentence 71 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:09,960 behind bars. 72 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:16,016 The guards did not seem sensitive to the trauma 73 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,000 that this experience was causing me. 74 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:24,400 My dignity and humanity disappeared 75 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:27,280 with the admission process. 76 00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:33,000 It involved me being searched for contrabands, 77 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,976 changed from my ordinary clothes 78 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:39,896 to the prison uniform, 79 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,600 forced to squat on the ground, 80 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:46,280 a posture that I soon came to learn 81 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:49,936 would form the routine 82 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:52,440 of the thousands of searches, 83 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:54,696 number counts, 84 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:56,200 that lay ahead of me. 85 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:00,480 The women told me, 86 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:03,320 "You'll adjust to this place. 87 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:05,880 You'll fit right in." 88 00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:11,336 I was no longer referred to as Teresa Njoroge. 89 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:16,096 The number 415/11 was my new identity, 90 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,936 and I soon learned that was the case with the other women 91 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:22,280 who we were sharing this space with. 92 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:27,720 And adjust I did to life on the inside: 93 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:30,160 the prison food, 94 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:32,960 the prison language, 95 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:35,896 the prison life. 96 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:40,680 Prison is certainly no fairytale world. 97 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,336 What I didn't see come my way 98 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,280 was the women and children 99 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:53,920 whom we served time and shared space with, 100 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:59,456 women who had been imprisoned 101 00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:02,536 for crimes of the system, 102 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:07,320 the corruption that requires a fall guy, 103 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:10,136 a scapegoat, 104 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:13,016 so that the person who is responsible 105 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:14,240 could go free, 106 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:22,256 a broken system that routinely vilifies the vulnerable, 107 00:06:22,280 --> 00:06:24,576 the poorest amongst us, 108 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,696 people who cannot afford to pay bail 109 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:28,920 or bribes. 110 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:32,880 And so we moved on. 111 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:37,696 As I listened to story after story 112 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,936 of these close to 700 women 113 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:43,920 during that one year in prison, 114 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:49,256 I soon realized that crime 115 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:53,440 was not what had brought these women to prison, 116 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:55,680 most of them, 117 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:58,080 far from it. 118 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:03,240 It had started with the education system, 119 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:09,160 whose supply and quality is not equal for all; 120 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:13,240 lack of economic opportunities 121 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:19,096 that pushes these women to petty survival crimes; 122 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:21,256 the health system, 123 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:23,496 social justice system, 124 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:25,936 the criminal justice system. 125 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:28,376 If any of these women, 126 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,256 who were mostly from poor backgrounds, 127 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:33,976 fall through the cracks 128 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:37,056 in the already broken system, 129 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,856 the bottom of that chasm is a prison, 130 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:42,080 period. 131 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,736 By the time I completed my one-year sentence 132 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:50,120 at Langata Women Maximum Prison, 133 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,560 I had a burning conviction 134 00:07:54,960 --> 00:07:58,856 to be part of the transformation 135 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:01,416 to resolve the injustices 136 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:03,136 that I had witnessed 137 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:04,896 of women and girls 138 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:07,696 who were caught up in a revolving door 139 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,256 of a life in and out of prison 140 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:11,520 due to poverty. 141 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:15,496 After my release, 142 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:17,360 I set up Clean Start. 143 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:21,816 Clean Start is a social enterprise 144 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:24,816 that seeks to give these women and girls 145 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:26,280 a second chance. 146 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:30,896 What we do is we build bridges for them. 147 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:33,696 We go into the prisons, train them, 148 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:36,775 give them skills, tools and support 149 00:08:36,799 --> 00:08:40,216 to enable them to be able to change their mindsets, 150 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:42,559 their behaviors and their attitudes. 151 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:47,816 We also build bridges into the prisons 152 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:49,816 from the corporate sector -- 153 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:51,976 individuals, organizations 154 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:53,976 that will partner with Clean Start 155 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,416 to enable us to provide employment, 156 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:58,496 places to call home, 157 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:00,656 jobs, vocational training, 158 00:09:00,680 --> 00:09:02,976 for these women, girls, 159 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:04,456 boys and men, 160 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:07,040 upon transition back into society. 161 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:10,560 I never thought 162 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:13,176 that one day 163 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:15,096 I would be giving stories 164 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,656 of the injustices that are so common 165 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:20,960 within the criminal justice system, 166 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:23,800 but here I am. 167 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:27,600 Every time I go back to prison, 168 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:30,440 I feel a little at home, 169 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:36,096 but it is the daunting work 170 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:38,056 to achieve the vision 171 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:40,360 that keeps me awake at night, 172 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:46,096 connecting the miles to Louisiana, 173 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:51,520 which is deemed as the incarceration capital of the world, 174 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,096 carrying with me stories 175 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:57,416 of hundreds of women 176 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:00,616 whom I have met within the prisons, 177 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:05,176 some of whom are now embracing their second chances, 178 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:10,440 and others who are still on that bridge of life's journey. 179 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:14,280 I embody a line 180 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:17,880 from the great Maya Angelou. 181 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:21,576 "I come as one, 182 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:24,480 but I stand as 10,000." 183 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:29,200 (Applause) 184 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:37,096 For my story is singular, 185 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:38,920 but imagine with me 186 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:43,176 the millions of people 187 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:45,440 in prisons today, 188 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:48,960 yearning for freedom. 189 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:55,216 Three years post my conviction 190 00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:58,656 and two years post my release, 191 00:10:58,680 --> 00:11:01,656 I got cleared by the courts of appeal 192 00:11:01,680 --> 00:11:03,216 of any wrongdoing. 193 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:07,000 (Applause) 194 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:10,816 Around the same time, 195 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:13,016 I got blessed with my son, 196 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,296 whom I named Uhuru, 197 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:18,376 which in my dialect means "freedom." 198 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:22,456 (Applause) 199 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:25,976 Because I had finally gotten the freedom 200 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:27,880 that I so longed for. 201 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:30,856 I come as one, 202 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:33,456 but I stand as 10,000, 203 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:38,136 encouraged by the hard-edged hope 204 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:41,936 that thousands of us have come together 205 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:47,200 to reform and transform the criminal justice system, 206 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,256 encouraged that we are doing our jobs 207 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:54,560 as we are meant to do them. 208 00:11:55,120 --> 00:11:57,496 And let us keep doing them 209 00:11:57,520 --> 00:11:59,320 with no apology. 210 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:01,256 Thank you. 211 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,800 (Applause)