Mbugua talks expansively about his shattered dream

Bethuel Mbugua with Retired President Daniel Moi in 1987. [File, Standard]

His voice comes in waves. When he is talking about his childhood, it rises in urgency and he tumbles over his words. His tone reduces to a whisper when he talks about his father and the frosty relationship they had when the grand future he planned for him, was shattered.

“I think about my past and feel I had such an unfair childhood,” says Bethuel Mbugua, opening up on his rise to fame and how he faded into nothingness when he could no longer live up to expectations of many. Born in 1978, he made news at the age of six. He was a tiny boy who shocked his teachers at Rorie Primary in Londiani by talking about the human anatomy his age mates did not know existed. Teachers labelled him a genius. Media called him whiz kid. Psychologists said his IQ was so high.