Now 31 years old, I grew up in a family with 18 siblings, with my father who has since passed away and his two wives, one who has died and the other who is my mother. I was the fifteenth sibling, born in a small village called Mario Villa, in Naivasha Sub-County.

My childhood life was full of many challenges. Once, I almost lost my life when I went slid into the Malewa River while fetching firewood. Luckily, I was rescued.

Since we were so many siblings my food was never enough. We used to go to the dumping site for the nearby Green Park development to search for scraps of food. This is actually a joyful memory for me, since we could get many different types of food that had been discarded by our wealthy neighbors. We called the place “Chebush” and considered it our shopping center. At times, however, we had so little food, we had to feed on cactus fruit, called nguna, for lunch. In truth, our life was not at all easy. We really struggled.

The biggest challenge of all for us was schooling. We would walk every day from Mario Villa to Loldia primary school, a distance of five kilometers. Just imagine at my age, nine years old, walking for five kilometers beginning at 5:30 in the morning, just to arrive at school before a 6:30am start. It was so exhausting for such a young child. The biggest danger we faced on the way to school was when we encountered buffalos on the road. Buffalos are actually the most dangerous animals in Africa, in terms of the number of deaths they cause. When we saw buffalos, sometimes we would turn around and go right back home, missing our school lessons.

Each day, we were given only five shillings (US0.04) for lunch to buy mandazi, a small sweet bread snack, and that was all we would have for lunch. Sometimes we could eat cactus fruit for lunch.

The most painful part of my school life were the many days that I did not eat any lunch. My siblings and I would walk around Kasarani village searching for anything to eat. Sometimes we could find a dry mango seed that had been discarded, which we could break into pieces to eat. We called it ndumumu. I would often attend my lessons feeling very hungry, which greatly affected my performance in school. On some occasions, I would fall asleep in class due to hunger. My teachers would not spare me.

Many days during rainy season, we would get drenched while walking home from school. There was shelter along the way, so if it rained, we would just get wet. We would often arrive home very late in the evening, hoping to find some food remains still waiting for us. Often, we would eat raw cabbage.

On several occasions we were kicked out of school because our school fees hadn’t been paid. We were sent home, only permitted to return if we brought our fees with us. I hated this so much.

I remember one time, after we relocated to Kasarani, I almost lost my life for the second time in Lake Naivasha. We had gone fishing, and afterwards decided to take a swim. Then something unexpected happened. A very huge hippo confronted us. After buffalos, hippos are the second most deadly animal in Africa. We escaped by a whisper. My dog, whose name was Kulu, started barking loudly, startling the hippo who went away. Since then, I swore never to go fishing again. It was illegal anyway.

My siblings and I used to go into the forest to burn charcoal, a very dirty task but a way to make a little money. This was a really hard time for us. In 2007, I did my KCPE exam, but just missed the score that would have qualified me for a scholarship. The same year, post election violence took place. We were taken to Naivasha Prison to seek refuge, since we had been threatened several times. Life became unbearable, as we slept out in the cold with just a blanket and no tent for three weeks. Bathing was history, and we had no clothes to change. Believe it or not, at one point I actually wore a ladies’ blouse. The clothes were donated by well-wishers, and it was embarrassing but what else could I do? Eventually, I was helped by the government to head to our family home in Kisumu on the back of a truck. I was forced to repeat Year 8 because my father had no money to take me to high school, but the next year I was able to attend.

High school life was not easy either. My late father tried his best to make sure that I was able to go to school, selling some cows and a piece of land to afford the fees. But we were never able to pay on-time, and every term I was sent home by the principal, only permitted to return if I brought the next term’s school fees with me. Thanks to God, starting in Form 4, World Vision paid half of my shool fees, which made a huge difference for our family. After Form 4, I was also employed as a BOM teacher in a primary school, earning 3,000 Shillings per month. I was able to save 2,000 Shillings for university, while sharing 1,000 Shillings ith my father.

After graduating from High School, I went to college and took a course of teaching. My father sold almost all our land and cows so I could study hard, with the hope that I’d later be able to help our family. At one time when I was in a lecture class, I was called in by the Dean of Students. When I get there, to my surprise, I found my dad. He had cycled more than 25 kilometers to come and visit me. I could not hold back my tears as he handed me a pair of old slipper that he had brought for me. While other students’ parents visited by car, mine came cycling on a bike.

Since I was a member of the Christian Union in college, a friend of mine used to lend me clothes. There, I served God diligently. I was a good praise and worship singer, which made me gain favor before God and Men. I finished my course with many struggles, but in the end my performance was good.

In my family with eighteen siblings, I was the only one who went to college. I had always wanted to help other kids, because of my own difficult experiences, as my own life had really humbled me. I had always had a desire to start an orphanage and prayed to God that he’d help me get enough money to do this. Whenever I traveled and met a street kid, I would buy something for him and her to eat, and always left with tears on my cheeks. Starting an orphanage always felt like a calling to me.

In 2015, I came back to Kasarani to teach at Loldia Primary School, still with a vision of helping children, and soon realized that a few of my fellow teachers had the same vision. This is when I met Jimmy and Sammy.

Aside from teaching, football was my passion. Sammy and I were assigned to the Games Department at Loldia, where we organized interclass friendly matches. Playing football brought joy to the kids, and we realized that their academic performance actually improved when they had a chance to play football. The rate of absenteeism also started to drop one we announced that anyone who missed school could not play football.

At one point, we started organizing friendly matches for kids at St. Andrews, the secondary school in Kasarani. This is where Jimmy, Sammy and I met Samson, who was the St. Andrews football coach. We realized that all four of us had one thing in common—a heart for bringing joy to children. We started organizing friendly matches every weekend.

After one match was completed, still feeling excitement from the experience, Samson shared with us how he was seeing changes in the attitudes of St. Andrews students. The rate of absenteeism was dropping, and he was seeing positive changes in behavior as well. The four of us realized that football really can be an instrument of change for our youth.

This is when we started exploring the idea of establishing a football academy in Kasarani, so we could monitor and mentor the kids even when they are not in school. We had heard a past story about an earlier attempt that was marred by favoritism and a lack of discipline, and we wanted to learn from these mistakes to do it differently.

In 2019, Samson, Jimmy, Sammy and I formed the Talanta Africa Football Academy, or TAFA for short. Our slogan was Badilisha Jamii—Transforming the Society. We came up with three pillars for our organization: academic excellence, behavior change, and skill development, and felt that a football mission was an excellent platform for achieving all three with the kids in Kasarani. I have faith that in ten years time, TAFA will be on the map of Kenya. We will be known even elsewhere in Africa, and many will want to be associated with TAFA because of our good management. We want to produce the best football players, but also the best leaders for our society. I also hope that in years to come, we will have our own land, our own facility, and that we can provide housing for the kids in Kasarani who have no family of their own and nowhere safe to sleep. I am seeing my vision being fulfilled, but there is much left to do and I have faith that God is at work in what we’re doing with TAFA.