Winnie Adipo, a Kenyan woman serving in the United States Air Force, bears scars from four prior attempts to join the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).
In an interview on the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, US, where she is presently stationed, she claimed that her long-held desire of joining the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) was frequently turned down due to pervasive nepotism within the organization.
Despite her relentless attempts, she was turned down four times.
Adipo said that unemployment was high across the country, and military recruiters only provided posts to their relatives or those ready to pay a large bribe.
She said that unemployment was high across the country, and military recruiters only provided posts to their relatives or those ready to pay a large bribe.
On her fourth effort, Adipo stated that she was asked to pay a bribe that she couldn’t afford because of her modest upbringing.
Her father was a high school agricultural teacher, while her mother worked as a nurse.
“He (the recruiter) told me, ‘Give me 200,000 shillings and I’ll fix you in.’ I just didn’t have that sort of pocket money and just like that, my dream was gone,” she recalled.
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Adipo stated that the unsuccessful attempt was a blow to her long-held desire of serving the country, which she had from childhood when she attended the annual military fair in Mombasa on several occasions.
“When I was older, I began to understand the impacts of military service. I saw that it was something bigger than myself and I knew I wanted to join,” she added
Adipo’s ambition came true in 2016 when she was recruited by the United States Air Force, but her path to success was not easy.
In 2015, the soldier received an email certifying her admittance to the US Diversity Visa Program, and in October of that year, she traveled to Tacoma, Washington.
After months of striving to gather all of her papers, Adipo happened to have a conversation with a driver who was bringing her for standard social security applications and supplied the contact information for a military recruiter.
“It was so simple I couldn’t believe it. No one was trying to take my money,” she gushed over how hussle-free her recruitment had been.
She began as a health service management expert in the medical department of the police and rose through the ranks to become a staff sergeant.
