Sr. Mary O’Malley’s missionary journey in Africa started over 40 years ago when she first landed at Nigeria as a young nurse and a member of the international Congregation of the Medical Missionaries of Mary. Even though her missionary journey to Africa was smooth, her mission in Nigeria was rudely interrupted by harsh and unhospitable weather which fueled tropical diseases. It was not long before Sr Mary returned to Ireland to recover but since her missionary spirit was unsettling, she opted for Kenya once the offer was made. While in Kenya, Sr Mary worked at Kerio Valley where she supported health outreach programmes in the remote villages of the West Pokot.
After a stint at the Kerio Valley, Sr Mary was asked by the then Catholic Bishop of Kitale to start a family life programme which she gladly accepted. Sr Mary took a long medical break from ………to 2006 when she returned with renewed energy. Upon discernment and contemplation, she quickly identified that there was an emerging human trafficking dynamic in Kenya. After going through a number of reports authored by UNICEF and the Government of Kenya, she started gathering newspaper cuttings as well as listening to news from media houses.
At that time, the MMM, Mukuru Health Center, one of Sr Mary’s pet projects during her years in leadership (1994 – ……..) had entrenched its roots among the urban poor at Mukuru kwa Njenga slums. Using the Community Health Promoters (then called Community Health Volunteers), she traversed the community churches on Saturdays and Sundays. Some of the initial workshops had as few as 2 participants but this never worried Sr Mary’s conviction of her new ministry.
In 2007, Sr Mary was invited to an international conference on human trafficking at the Vatican. She was among a select small group of pioneer Catholic religious/clergy from around the world. Out of that conference, she got a renewed zeal to work even more to unpack the hidden ghost of human trafficking in Africa. Again, upon her return to Kenya, she was invited to a Government pioneer meeting in 2008 at the Safari Park hotel where a select group of participants discussed about an intended Counter Trafficking in Persons’ Act which eventually came to pass in 2010 upon the parliamentary enactment of the Counter Trafficking in Persons Act of 2010.
The work at the Mukuru MMM begun taking a clearer shape from 2010 and for the next six years, the counter trafficking component within the Mukuru MMM took a growth phase which redefined the trajectory of the future. The growth necessitated an evaluation in 2016 and it was through that report that a strong recommendation was made to reorganize the growth portfolio in order to create a proper and independent institution to provide the requisite framework for the envisaged future.
In 2018, Sr Mary took a bold step and co-founded the Counter Human Trafficking Trust-East Africa (CHTEA) in order to address the limitations identified from the evaluation report in relation to Mukuru. The project had long outgrown Mukuru MMM counter human trafficking project. In a concerted effort to bridge the gap, Sr Mary invited an experienced Kenyan to co-found and activate CHTEA. Registered as “Trust”, CHTEA was registered on August 2018 with a broad mandate to engage on matters, counter human trafficking/smuggling and migration among other key thematic areas. During the launch, invited guests ranged from Government, the UN, national and International NGO’s and Foreign Missions resident in Kenya. It was an awakening call for other stakeholders.
Eight years down the memory lane, CHTEA continues to redefine counter trafficking/smuggling and migration discourses in Kenya, the East African sub-region, African Union as well as at the global stage. In Kenya, CHTEA seats is one among 2 non-governmental stakeholders who seat at the Advisory Committee (the highest advisory council to the Minister). CHTEA further supported with the training and establishment of the Tanzanian “Jukwaa la kupambana na ulanguzi wa binadamu” (platform for counter human trafficking) which brings together all stakeholders in the Singida region of Tanzania. The platform has previously been used as a learning benchmark for building solidarity to the rest of Tanzania.
At the Africa Union (Continental) level, CHTEA works closely with the Continental Operational Center (CoC) for coordinating and facilitating member states’ responses to irregular migration, combat trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants. CHTEA is a member of the African Union (CoC) team of experts that was constituted in 2024 at Kampala, Uganda during the development of the first CoC Strategic Plan. CHTEA is also one of two civil society organizations from Kenya which offer continental training on the Global Compact on Migration (GCM) framework. Kenya is a champion country for this new compact on migration that promotes better migration governance globally.
At the global level, CHTEA has twice presented papers at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) conferences at Vienna, Austria. These conventions are organized annually as dialogue forums to discuss the global trends, interventions and trends of human trafficking, smuggling, irregular migration, organized crime and fire arms; among other topics of interest.
Transition
As Sr Mary transits to Europe in September 2026, her colossal shoes leave a pale shadow of a giant who controlled and influenced the core vision of CHTEA as well as the foundational beginnings. CHTEA takes great pride in being associated with such a divine giant who acted locally but influenced globally. Sr Mary’s demeaner could offer a deceptive ordinary person character but deep within the same shadow lies the giant of a highly motivated and convicted individual who cherishes simplicity and life of the ordinary poor who’s hole mark was the Mukuru health programme at the Mukuru slums.
With over 40 years in Africa, Sr Mary goes back to a Europe which might be significantly different from when she first left. Even though she had been taking intermittent breaks in between, Sr Mary admits that Europe is very different especially at this age of advanced technology. The fast paced life, the modern transport, the place of Ireland in the league of nations on many contemporary issues such as the Palestine, the Trump presidency, the Africa-Europe migration and the dynamics of trafficking in persons in a modern day age among others.