If you walk near, you will see ragged fellows, some carrying, sitting or napping on their sack. At around 1:20pm, a man on a motorbike arrives, carrying three backets. Some of the street children rush to help the rider offload the cargo and take it to where the rest are sitting.
Observing this spectacle one day, I noticed on closer inspection that the rider is a well-known person to me. He is John Wambui, alias Kahii ga Cucu on social media.
John has been in the business of feeding the streets children twice a week. He mobilises funds from online content creators on Tik Tok and well-wishers and, of course, colleagues from the boda boda business.
Curious, I asked him why he chose to engage in the business of feeding streets children.
“I am an orphan. I know what it means to go hungry. As a way of giving back to the society, I chose to feed streets kids, who have been neglected by the society,” John said.
“I have done the assignment for four years and it hasn’t been an easy journey. Convincing well-wishers to give me money isn’t easy. Also, dealing with people under the influence of drugs isn’t a walk in the park.”
John pointed to me a young man who was helping him serve the street children.
‘’You see this young man, I personally rehabilitated him. I talked to him, counselled him until he abandoned the streets. He reformed, got married, got a job and a child. Now he serves as an example to the others who I usually talk to.”
Apart from feeding them, he has initiated a programme of sponsoring those who are willing to resume their studies in school.
‘’I have four kids in school. One cleared her Form 4 at Chania Girls in Thika in 2024. She got a B plain and is waiting to join university. I have two girls at Moi Girls and a boy at Kerugoya Boys’ High School in Kirinyaga,” he said, adding that he partnered with Don Bosko in Nairobi.
To those who are old enough for job placement, he scouts and negotiates for menial jobs from different sectors, as well as keeping an eye on them not to revert to their old culture of abusing drugs.
INSTILLING VIRTUES
Notably, most of the beneficiaries were
quite clean, a trait uncommon with street children.
“I usually insist on the need for cleanliness. This protects many of them from being harassed by county askaris and the police,” John said.
“We donate clothes to them and, as many are
earning, we push them to groom themselves.”
Cleanliness and discipline are virtues he keeps stressing the need for. As the children are served, he issues directions. He has conditions he enforces at the place he feeds the children.
Jonty, as he is affectionately called by the
street children, has impacted their lives in a big way.
On this particular Friday, he was late. He was to serve them chapati, meat and potatoes and stew. Listening to the conversation, you could tell how frustrated the group would be if he never showed up to feed them.
“I intend to expand the programme to thrice a week and eventually to five days a week.” John said.
“Many of these kids came to the streets because of lack of a good environment to live in, abuse by their families and losing direction after being orphaned.”
But why go to the throuble of cooking, instead of buying bread and soft drinks to serve them?
“A hot meal is what they desperately require. A meal cooked with love will go a long way in inspiring them to transform and accept you,” John said.
“Many sleep outside, and were it not for my initiative, a hot meal is a luxury to them.”
He said that when he started the initiative, he had to research and he learnt a hot meal and a listening ear is what the kids needed, not condemnation.
John calls on Kenyans of goodwill to initiate such programmes because he cannot manage to feed the whole of Nairobi.
He says if Kenyans show them love, many if not all will reform and become useful members of the society.
Macharia Wangui is a broadcast journalist
