At the mention of the name Bernard Thuo Matheri alias Rasta, what many Kenyans will remember is a dreaded gangster who gave police sleepless nights. What many didn’t know was that behind his deadly gangster lifestyle, there was a committed, supportive woman. Mary Wanjiru was not only a wife to the slain gangster but an accomplice and confidant who claims to have been driven into crime by her poor upbringing and lack of education.
She led a life of chaos and instability as a child due to lack of parental love and she says her parents never took notice of her needs as a child.
Now a reformed woman and a pastor, Mary narrated her life in crime in an exclusive interview revealing how a botched robbery landed her in the hands of authorities. Born in Gichugu, Kirinyaga County, she said her first attempt at robbery was at a supermarket in the company of her slain husband who took charge of the premises at gun point while she stuffed money into a gunny bag from the cash box.
“We went back home and he told me, ‘I like you, I love how you have carried out your work’,… since then, he would teach me how to handle a gun, he showed me tactics on how to manage the gun, ” she narrated. And to succeed in her mission, Mary and her gang worked with insiders of the targeted business premises.
Mary notes she became a much more dreaded gangster than her husband after his death on September 1, 1997. This however did not last long as two years into her gangster life without Matheri, she was arrested after a botched KSh 196 million robbery in Meru in 1999.
Mary was sentenced to 35 years in prison but managed to serve only eleven years after which she was commuted to seven years and later four and finally released on June 1, 2002. Almost 20 years since Mary was first arrested, she now runs Jehovah Shalom Ministries in Kitengela with an aim of ministering to many who lead a life similar to her past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IZHNQ4JMsk&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IZHNQ4JMsk&feature=youtu.be
