When you meet Simon Njoroge for the first time, you will mistake him for a snob when he fails to respond to your greetings as he ushers you to the dental surgeon’s operating room in a hospital in Nairobi.
Underneath his mask, there is an unseen smile from the creases forming around his eyes as he uses his hands to signal a patient to make way to the doctor’s room. He is a deaf dental assistant and a cycling enthusiast.
And as the world celebrates deaf awareness month, he is cycling across different parts of the country seeking to raise awareness of deafness and hearing impairment.
“I cycle for fun, good causes, fitness and mental health and creating awareness… the aim is to educate road users, particularly motorists, that cyclists are also rightful road users and urge them to share the road because every life counts,” he said.
For his safety, he says, he uses a whistle to communicate with pedestrians to move out of the way and, when he encounters motorists who attempt to bully him on the road, he stands his ground.
Njoroge lost his hearing ability when he was seven years old, which opened up a new reality for him and his parents in Murang’a County upon which he was enrolled to a deaf school and underwent the Kenya Sign Language curriculum.
“The shift was overwhelming at first because I even forgot what I had learnt in my hearing days but I loved it with time through the help of fellow students and teachers,” he said.
Before qualifying to be a dental assistant, the 28-year-old worked as a casual labourer on construction sites, having studied building and construction at the Karen Technical Training Institute for the deaf after dropping out of high school in Form Two due to a lack of fees.
Simon Njoroge works as a dental assistant at Riverside Dental Suite in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi | Nation Media Group
But as fate would have it, he met his current employer at one of his construction sites seven years ago and their working relationship has blossomed to date.
In his career journey, he has grown from a casual labourer to a gardener and cleaner to now a senior dental assistant at the hospital.
“I don’t find anything difficult about working as a dental assistant. It has been a blessing to me, meeting and interacting with new friends every hour. I’ll always be grateful to my boss and mentor for this huge opportunity to serve humanity,” he said.
It was during an impromptu visit to a clinic that was under repairs that Njoroge met with his employer occasionally while he was either laying cabro blocks and tiles or doing partitioning works — always on his own.
“At first, I thought he was ignoring me whenever I struck a conversation with him but when I later learnt that he was deaf, I was interested and was very keen to know him given I had wrongly judged him,” said Dr Peter Jackson Muriuki.
He started apprenticing for the assistant job in 2019 when he realised he was concluding his chores at the facility earlier and had enough time on his hands to do something else.
They communicate through writing on pieces of paper and, when he asked to be allowed to sterilise the dental equipment after procedures were done, the doctor gave him the green light and that marked the start of his practice in dentistry.
“Having observed his work ethic and how meticulously he did his duties, I decided to allow him to sterilise the equipment,” Dr Muriuki said.
“Whenever he did not understand anything, he would write it down and ask. He would take his time to learn more about it. There are about 20 procedures that we carry out here and he is able to run them with me on a daily basis,” he added.
At the Riverside Dental Suite, Njoroge has taught his colleagues sign language to make it easier for them to communicate with him.
Initially, at work, he would be subjected to stigma and insensitivity by his colleagues who misunderstood him.
“He is a perfectionist and he would often come to my office to ask about things, which would be misunderstood as snitching on his colleagues. It made him feel like an outsider and would often self-isolate,” said Dr Muriuki. According to the dental surgeon, he decided to take him on board because he realised that “his disability compared to his ability went far beyond the normal. He is extraordinarily gifted,” Dr Muriuki said.
He urged other employers to hire people with disabilities and make the work environment harmonious for them.
