Varsity-bound ex-street boys pay back society

By MOSES NJAGIH

When Steve Biko Bantu and Bernard Oduor were mopped up from the streets of Nairobi where they had spent four years scavenging for food and sniffing glue, they did not know that the gesture would transform their lives forever.

Although they were considered a nuisance on the streets, Bantu and Oduor resisted the move by the Government to move street families to rehabilitation

Bernard Oduor during a lesson at Nyeri’s Thunguma Children and Youth Empowerment Centre. [PHOTO: GOERGE MULALA]

Now they share their experiences with the former street children at Thunguma, to motivate them to withstand the challenges they are facing adapting to their new life.

"We are role models to them who inspire them to take their studies seriously," says Oduor.

Hopeful as they are, the duo are not sure they will manage to join university and are already running a year late according to their admission letters. They failed to take up their place after the Street Children Trust Fund, which was supposed to pay their fees, did not.

The Assistant Director at the Children and Youth Empowerment Centre Patrick Miheso says the fund is working to resolve the problem to enable the two continue with their education.

Miheso says if this does not happen it might de-motivate the reformed boys.