Constable Emma Brenda Wanjiru burst into the limelight in 2016 thanks to her beauty that is usually bereft in female police officers in Kenya.
Believed to be the most beautiful female officer in Kenya, she has gone on to gain numbers on her social media platforms. She has since then used her platforms to address matters revolving around single mother-hood and gender-based violence.
The mother of one talks about these, among other challenges that women go through with passion having been a victim in the past.
Here is Emma’s story as told by WoK.
Background
Emma was born and raised in Nyahururu some 33 years ago, and she is the elder of two children. She attended her high school education at Ngiriambu Girls’ High School in Kirinyaga County.
The police constable and her siblings were raised by their mother after her dad who was a police officer left when she was four. He mother was also in the service.
“The values she instilled in me back then molded me into the person I am today. If it was not for her upbringing, I would be a weak person,” she said in an interview with Nation.
Early pregnancy and abusive relationship
Emma got pregnant with her child in 2018 just after finishing high school. She had visited her uncle in Kiserian, Kajiado County when she met her then boyfriend.
The two fell in love and ended up getting pregnant, forcing them to elope since she was hiding the pregnancy from her aunt and her mother.
They rented a single-room in Rongai, but it didn’t take long before her baby daddy unleashed his wrath on her.
“My relationship turned toxic as my child’s father began abusing me physically, emotionally and psychologically. He was sure that I would not go back hole because I loved him very much. He would tell me I was nothing, I would never get married if I leave him, I would never be successful and that if I left I would be back
“He actually get to my head and I believed him because he was a bit older than I was. I asked myself where I would go, a teenager with no papers, no job, nothing, so I stayed,” Emma said.
Despite getting in depression and having suicidal thoughts, Emma stayed and returned home when her daughter was eight weeks old.
It took her one year to heal and pick herself up before moving to Nairobi where she resumed school while living with her daughter in a one-roomed house in Eastlands.
Emma would drop her daughter at a daycare in the morning and pick her up in the evening while returning home from her social work and development classes.
Joining the police service
After working for a while as a supermarket attendant, Emma quit her job and went back to Nyahururu to participate in the 2012 police recruitment campaign.
She participated in the recruitment process emerging fifth and the police service wanted only four women.
However, she was later called to assume the fourth position after one of the ladies tested positive for pregnancy.
Emma enrolled at the Kiganjo Police Training College for her training that took one year and a half.
“The 18 months were hard because it was the first time I was staying away from my daughter. But I was happy because it was a dream come true
“I felt that being a police officer is my calling and it would get me to the next step. I eventually graduated and everyone was happy for me,” she said.
Modeling and fashion
The police officer is a certified karateka and model, and surely, her love for fashion is the other thing that has attracted scores to her social media platforms.
“I have always loved fashion since I was small. I like wearing specific brands and right now my collection is mostly Julie Gichuru, Wambui Mutegi and Vivo collections
“I have been contemplating coming up with a clothesline but that is a story for another day,” Emma said in past interview with The Standard.
