When his parents separated, Fredrick Balla had to drop out of school while at Class Six and become a street urchin. For seven years, he lived on the streets before joining a gang. They robbed people for four years. But in a dramatic turn, Fredrick has transformed into a marriage counsellor, author, motivational speaker, and a preacher. He speaks about his journey from gangster to preacher.
Tough times
“The separation of my parents made me a stranger in my father's home. With no place to go, and nobody among my relatives to take me in, Dandora dumpsite became my home,” he says.
Born and brought up in Korogocho slums in Nairobi, the man who goes by the clerical title of an apostle and ministers at Redeemed Gospel Church in Kapkures, Nakuru County, recalls that during his time as a street urchin, he had no access to good food or water. The only option was to walk along the streets of Nairobi eating from dustbins. And to earn money, he and other street children would collect scrap objects from dumpsites and building backyards and sell them.
At times, luck would smile their way when airport buses would offload leftover food at the Dandora dumpsite.
To fit in among other street children, Fredrick began using drugs and sniffing petrol. When it rained at the dumpsite, he would sleep under vibandas.
"Street life is not for the weak. Street urchins had their defined zones and areas of operations, and sometimes things would get messy when it came to street clashes. Drugs helped numb my nerves," he says.
His father was an employee of Chandaria Industries at Baba Dogo, while his mother was in business.
“Life then was good as I was growing up in a home. I went to a private nursery school in Grogon but I can’t recall its name. I then joined St John Informal Primary School in Korogocho where I dropped out in Class Six due to my parents’ irreconcilable differences and their subsequent separation. I was a bright boy and was always among the top five. My teachers had high hopes in me, and encouraged me to study law in future, but that was not to be."
Fredrick was the only child born to his estranged parents.
Life in crime
In the streets, he met all shades of people and befriended some who were in crime.
One of his friends introduced him to a gang of robbers and he was recruited. As part of induction to the underworld of crime, he began using hard drugs in the form of ingestible pellets and injectable liquids.
“There was no choice. I had to conform to that life without question. Otherwise I would be branded a spy," he says.
The gang specialised in raiding supermarkets, hijacking cars, and looting shops.
“The gang members did not have any financial discipline. They would all blow away their money in drugs, alcohol and women, as they plotted the next crime.
“One day we hijacked a car in Dandora stage and wanted to take it to Njiru forest. Little did we know that there were armed policemen onboard. We were ordered to surrender, but instead engaged the law enforcers in a shootout. We would hire guns, particularly pistols, from rogue police officers, which we would use together with our own homemade ones. That particular shootout went bad. One of our gang members was shot dead right before my eyes,” he says.
He escaped unhurt, but that close shave with death served as a wake-up call.
He had other narrow encounters with death, not once, through mob justice.
“I can't forget the Gomongo incident where I was caught and stoned almost to death. While I was pleading with the mob to spare my life, a man came with a panga and cut my left leg, almost severing it off, and then another guy came with a huge block of stone and hit the same leg with such force that for days, the leg was numb. I had never experienced such pain before.”
He would have died that day, but got renewed strength upon hearing someone shouting ‘Mwagia yeye petroli' (douse him with petrol). With blood oozing from many injuries and cuts, he outran the mob and escaped.
He was nursed by a Good Samaritan and went to hide in Mathare Valley for some time as he healed.
“Gangsters do not stick around in one place but have several houses to hide in when things get thick. The gang that I belonged to had houses in Korogocho, Getara, Maringo, Githurai Kimbo and Mathare,” he says.
The road to Damascus
On March 12,1999, Fredrick’s friend was to travel upcountry. He did not have a travel bag and went to borrow one from one of his other friends.
“He took long and I went to look for him since I knew where he had gone. But on reaching there, I heard people preaching inside and peeped through the window and saw my friend in the middle of two gentlemen being prayed for,” he says.
He went to wait for him by the roadside. After some time, he decided to go back and get his friend out of that house, only to find the three still deep in worship. His friend was now on his knees. Rather than interrupt them, he decided to run and call his friend’s girlfriend. He told her that she was on the verge of losing her man to a cult.
“I came back with the woman to where her boyfriend was, pushed the door open, and allowed her to walk in while I began retreating backwards. I had hardly made a few steps back when something hit me with such a force that I blacked out," he recalls.
"When I came back to my senses, I was seated right in the middle of these two preachers, my friend and her girlfriend. How I ended up there is still a puzzle to me. My friend asked what I was doing there, and I said I had come for salvation.” He had experienced his Damascus moment.
New lease of life
After this encounter, he decided to leave the city for good. He relocated to his paternal grandparent’s rural home in Siaya County. There, he joined a church and slowly transformed from a hardcore gangster to a pious Christian.
He teamed up with a man who was doing manual work. Over time, they became professional pit latrine diggers.
It is through this line of work that he met his wife. A toilet at Bar Chando Secondary School in Bondo had collapsed and they were called to dig a new one. His future wife was by then living with her uncle at the school.
“She sympathised with us and brought us food during the six days we worked there. That's how I created a bond with her and after dating her for a couple of months, she became my wife," he says.
They have been married for 21 years now and are blessed with five children.
Fredrick is also a motivational speaker and author of five books, including The Blessings of a Prophetic Cover, Preserving the Next Generation and My life in the Streets.
