Changing views about the deaf

By Austin Oduor

When she responded to a vacancy announcement by the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons two years ago, she did not expect to get the job.

Although she had graduated from Kenyatta University with a Bachelor of Arts degree 14 years earlier, Sherine Opil had never gone beyond a job interview in her quest for employment.

On learning of her disability, very few employers even gave her a chance for an interview. One told her to the face that he could not pay her more than Sh3,000.

Immigration officer Sherine Opil has fought all her life to find acceptance. [PHOTOS: JENIPHER WACHIE]

But this time, her luck changed and she made it to the final list of immigration officers applicants. "For the first time I appeared before a panel that wrote down the questions which I read and answered," she says.

Today, sitting in her Nyayo House office behind a shiny mahogany desk with a computer, Ms Opil reflects on the fight she has put up all her life to find acceptance.

Opil led a normal life until an accident changed its course at age seven. On the fateful day, she was enjoying the August holidays at their house in Eastleigh estate in Nairobi having topped her Standard Two class at Pangani Primary School.

Her father, Emmanuel Ochieng’, returned home from work to find his daughter wreathing in pain. He rushed her to Kenyatta National Hospital suspecting she had malaria but doctor’s diagnosed meningitis and she spent two weeks in the intensive care unit.

Fears confirmed

But on being discharged Opil could not talk. Her father took her to an ear, nose and throat specialist where his fears were confirmed — his daughter had lost her hearing. Her life changed drastically. "I lost my balance and had to walk while supporting myself using walls. I shied away from classmates and friends," she recalls.

She was exposed to public ridicule. "Students teased, bullied, manipulated and mimicked my speech. This eroded my self-esteem," she says.

For the rest of her schooling she sat on the front row because she heavily relied on lip-reading.

Even at university there was no respite from the torments. When her name was called out on admission day a relative responded on her behalf. "If you cannot hear why do you come to study here? How will we teach you?" asked the registration officer. "I will study just the same way I did in the previous schools," she responded," tears streaming down her cheeks.

The situation grew bleak after graduation when she had to compete with ‘normal’ graduates for scarce jobs, amid discrimination, in vain.

In 1996 she attended an International Conference for the Hard of Hearing in Graz, Australia. "The conference was an eye opener. I learnt a lot about being assertive and coping with the challenges that I faced daily," she says. Caroline Abonyo, her workmate, describes her as easygoing. "I can be as good if not better than ‘normal’ people," she says.

Opil is married to Ojijo Odhiambo and they are parents to Alexa Ojijo, eight and Kevin Ojijo, 15.