'Video of lying on operation table...' Boniface Mwangi on his birthday wish

Piece by: Grace Kerongo
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Boniface Mwangi needs your help.

As part of his birthday, he has reached out to his fans to help him help the downtrodden of society.

"Today is my birthday! I never thought I would get to the 3rd floor and now I'm so close to the fourth. I am so grateful to God for how far HE has brought me. In my life, I have lived and seen a lot; pain and loss and struggle and poverty. I have also seen courage, hope, love, victory, bravery and overcoming. Sadly, for some reason, I seem to see and feel the struggle more because there are a lot of injustices in our country. Our rights are violated every day. Guaranteed rights like access to health care, education, food, and security are only enjoyed by the very few."

Here is the rest of his post calling you to action.

Early this year, a friend gave me a small donation to support the work l do. I started a platform called Sema Ukweli (Say The Truth), which we rolled out on the 14th of March 2019. So far, we have published 53 issues on our various social media platforms, called Sema Ukweli. Of the issues we have managed to publish, 5 orphaned siblings got justice from an uncooperative insurance company; a rogue children’s home in Machakos facing defilement charges was shut down and the children transferred to better facilities; Gatanga CCM School in Muranga is being held to account over the death of a young girl under their care; Amaica Restaurant was subjected to investigations over the assault and mistreatment of employees at its United Nations complex and airport branches; A stage 4 cervical cancer patient accessed financial and medical help after years of frustration by healthcare practitioners; A complaint against NTSA officials got resolved and the car in question resumed business ; A former Nation Media Group staffer finally got paid after they had refused to release her final dues for many months. Some of these stories have also helped to bring justice to other cases in the same, or other, institutions.

We have achieved so much in 3 months. We have given trusted journalists in mainstream media sources to help expose bigger stories that we couldn’t handle. I could go on and on.

My Wish for my Birthday this year, is that I could amplify some of what I do. Essentially, I would like to build a team with whom we can do so much more to help all the people who reach out.

We publish 2-3 stories every week but with greater capacity, we can put out more stories. Since we published the first story on 14th March 2019, we have managed to reach 3.9 million people on Facebook and 1 million people on Twitter.

We also have over 300 people on a shortlist, waiting for their stories to be edited and published. We need more resources to keep the platform running. We need legal advisors to ensure we don’t infringe on the law. We have been sued twice already.

We need counselling volunteers to debrief our team. Some of the stories we get are traumatic, with gruesome images; a video of a 2-year-old baby lying on the operation table after being defiled isn’t something you just forget. We require consultants on how best to structure the team and conduct editorial flow.

My birthday wish is to convert the little I have been doing into an institution.

What do l hope to achieve with this? A platform that tells stories that are ignored by mainstream media. Bold and fearless journalism.

A platform owned by the citizens, run by the citizens, whose intention is to be a channel for the voiceless. Mainstream media’s existence is to make a profit for their owners and their shareholders, our platform will be to speak the truth. Help victims get justice and their stories told. In sharing these stories, we are also creating a community of people who care and are ready to stand up for the common citizen.