I got lost from town, called my mum in shagz for help

In September this year, Kenya beauty queen Messry Lung'atso was crowned Beauty of Africa International in Abuja, Nigeria.

The 23-year-old lady from Mumias is a final year student pursuing a degree in Economics at the University of Nairobi. Besides winning the overall prize, she also bagged the Most Photogenic award.

Although she can today comfortably navigate through Nairobi streets, this was not the case four years ago. Fresh from Kakamega in 2018, Messry came to Nairobi. She had been warned that all Nairobians were cons so she should never stop to ask for direction from anyone.

One particular evening on her way to town from Strathmore University, she lost direction and decided to figure it out on her own.

"I walked for almost two hours going back and forth; I couldn't ask for directions and I kept walking until I could not take it anymore."

Having walked round in circles for what seemed like ages, she decided to go against the directives she had been given from shagz and asked for assistance. She eventually got to the CBD and was expected to go to her residence in Umoja.

"I didn't know what matatus I was supposed to use and I was scared to ask again. I ended up walking nikifuata magari zenye zinakaa kuenda that direction," she recalls.

"After some time, I found some touts who were calling out Umoja; I didn't know there were different matatus plying the same route with different destinations. I hurriedly got into one as it was getting pretty late," she says.

Being a naive village girl then, Messry could not trace her way back and neither was she aware of her surroundings. "It was at night, everything looked the same, I didn't know what to do."

After moments of reflecting and panicking, "I started crying and I was not thinking straight. I ended up calling my mum back in Kakamega. I don't know how she was supposed to help me as she was hundreds of kilometres away. She called an uncle who came and picked me," she says.