Seeing victory in the face of adversity – Rister Ratemo speaks out
Rister Ratemo speaks on battling an eye condition for more than 20 years, being a victim of domestic violence and how she managed to find restoration in her life.
In life, sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to find hope. This is what depicts the life of one Rister Ratemo, song writer, gospel artist and author who has walked a difficult path in her life, but managed to come out strong.
Rister, 36, was born at Manga Settlement Scheme in Nyamira county in a family of six siblings.
Her parents are retired school teachers. “Life while growing up was amazing.
I was brought up in this community set up where everybody felt loved and we treated each other as friends,” says Rister.
One morning in 1997, Rister noted a small growth on her left eye. That started a painful journey towards finding treatment, which would take more than 20 years.
She offers: “By then, I was only 13, and just about to sit for my Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams. My parents took me to see various doctors and eye specialists.
The diagnosis was keratoconus, a rare condition. I was advised to go for surgery in India, but we didn’t have funds to cater for the flight or treatment cost.
Amidst all the frustrations and agony, I just lived with the condition and managed it with eye drops and eye glasses,” Rister recalls.
Despite all this, she performed well in her KCPE exams in 1997 and was the top girl in her school; Eronge Mixed Adventist Boarding School, Nyamira.
“I joined Kenya High School and after four years, I passed my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in 2001. 
I would later proceed to the University of Nairobi for a degree in Economics and Communication and graduated in December 2007,” she says.
Gradual recovery
Rister secured a job with Equity bank in 2008 as a credit officer. After working for four years, she approached her boss and requested she be assisted to pay for her eye surgery through insurance.
Fortunately, her request was granted and she underwent her first surgery in February 2011 at the Aga Khan Hospital.
She explains: “In 2013, I went in for my second surgery. The doctor didn’t handle the surgery well.
As he was taking out the stitches on my left eye, he pulled the sutures wrongly and there was a tear in the eye, which he didn’t notice.
When I went back home, I experienced an insurmountable amount of pain. I had to go back to the hospital only to be told that I needed to undergo an emergency operation.
Well, to cut the story short, the process of recovery has been long and gradual.
Up to now, I’m still recovering and using my eye drops and artificial tears,” she explains.
As if her eye problem was not enough, Rister got in a come-we-stay marriage that never worked.
“By then, I had my firstborn son whom I got while I was still in campus and due to tribalism issues (I am Kisii and he was from a different tribe) both our parents were not comfortable.
I was of the opinion that if my parents wouldn’t give us their blessings, I wouldn’t get married to that guy. So, he moved on with his life,” she explains.
Rister also moved on. “This guy looked humble and collected. But as time went by, he started abusing alcohol and would get violent.
He also got in touch with his ex and before I knew it, they had a child together,” she says.
Becoming a single mum
Rister reached a point of brokenness. In as much as she tried to cope and keep her marriage because she had already sired a child with him, deep inside she was hurting.
“One day he hit me so badly in the presence of my child and that is when I decided enough was enough.
I walked out of the abusive marriage and ended up being a single mother of two boys,” Rister says.
Due to her failed second relationship, she lost friends along the way, quit her job at Equity and was even ex-communicated from church because of having a child out of wedlock.
“It has not been easy because single mums face a lot of backlash from the society, but I always strive to protect my children and make them understand what happened.
They are now aged 13 and seven years. I reconnected my first born son with his biological dad and during holidays, he goes to spend time with him.
My younger son is still affected by my separation with his father,” says Rister.
Rister spent time on Google reading inspiring stories of influential people and motivational speakers such as Oprah Winfrey and Les Brown and discovered that they also went through a difficult phase in their lives just like her.
“That was a wake-up call for me —that I would make it despite all odds. A programme dubbed The Miracle Morning helped me to get out of my depressive state,” she says.
Rister started holding motivational talks and mentorship sessions with secondary school students in her community and posted the pictures on the ‘Miracle Morning’ Facebook page.
Her mentor, Hal Elrod, an American author and success coach, whom she had met online, saw them and was impressed.
He requested her to go to the US and have a platform to share her story in a global meeting, the ‘Miracle Morning Convention’, of people from 45 countries across the globe, mostly from Europe and America.
“The first time I applied for a visa, I was denied. Elrod wrote a letter to the Embassy requesting them to give me an opportunity to go to the US because at that time, he was down with cancer.
He wanted to do a documentary of his journey and also feature my story and of several other people because he was not sure whether he could make it.
I therefore, got a visa and came to the US in 2017. I left my sons under the care of my parents,” she says.
While in the US, Rister started composing songs. Today, she has several gospel songs to her name.
She has six songs on YouTube. “I am hoping to relocate back home to Kenya in December this year and produce my second album,” she says.
