The vast slum of Kasarani in Elburgon, Nakuru County is an old, historic timber town.
Old and abandoned tractors line the streets of the town, depicting an era when timber was king.
Behind these aging walls though, lies a field of dreams of a little-known sport which was born from an initiative to empower children to go through free computer-literacy classes.
“The high number of children dropping out in primary school and high unemployment rate drove us to start a computer school and we converted our home into a classroom,” said Andrew Thuku, who started the initiative together with his brother Morris.
The two said they used proceeds from their tour company Alice in Africa, to purchase computers and pay a computer teacher.
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“At the time, enrollment was high because a few schools offered computer studies,” says Morris.
In a year, the school enrolled over 200 students who were admitted after every three months.
The students transited either to secondary schools while others secured jobs.
“Unlike today when students can transit to secondary school as a result of free primary education, most pupils then lacked school fees and girls would drop out and get married while boys engaged in criminal activities for survival,” says Andrew.
A decade later, and following the success of the computer classes, the two introduced a new sport, baseball, to the town. Their baseball club drew children of all ages and they converged at a playing field in Elburgon centre.
“The idea was also to give primary school dropouts an opportunity to nurture a talent in the little-known game, to enable them compete with the few teams nationally.
We also brought on board, some great baseball coaches to train the children,” says Morris, also a baseball coach.
The club became the county’s only baseball team, competing with Nairobi, Machakos and Makueni counties.
Last year, the Under-17 team was crowned national champions in the national baseball championships, which also saw three of them being recruited to the Kenya National Baseball team.
“The dream, however does not end here. We want to represent the country in the Olympics one day,” says Sylvester Mwangi, who is a player.
