Big-hearted granny who has rescued four dumped babies

Kiambu, Kenya:  It is a sunny afternoon and a group of well-wishers are making their way to a makeshift house on the outskirts of Githurai town in Ruiru constituency.

 The shanty belongs to 65-year-old Celina Wachui, who has been living here for the last two decades.

 The guests are here after word went round that Celina, as she is fondly known here, has rescued yet another abandoned baby from the jaws of death.

Baby dumped

 The amiable granny ushers the guests into her house and then starts narrating how she rescued the one-day-old baby, who had been dumped near her house by an unknown person.

 “I was in the house when my nephew  came running in and told me there was a baby crying outside. I dashed out just in time to rescue the baby from a pack of hungry dogs that had surrounded him,” Celina said.

 She says she picked him up and took him into her house and named him Moses, after his biblical counterpart who was rescued by Pharoah’s daughters.

Celina currently hosts  three other children aged eight, five and a half and five years, who had also been dumped by their mothers.

 “I love children. I don’t have one of my own, but I can’t let an innocent baby die as I watch,” said the granny, who moved to the area from Molo after tribal clashes rocked Rift Valley  in 1992.

 On this day, she is receiving visitors from the Rotary Club of Ruiru who have come to help her continue with her good work.

Parental duties

 The delegation, which is led by nominated MP Isaac Mwaura, has brought foodstuff and clothing for  young Moses.

 The MP castigated young people who abdicate their parental duties after giving birth.

 “I call upon the Government to come up with a policy to ensure those taking care of abandoned children get funding to fully take good care of the children under their care,” Mwaura said.

 She called on well-wishers to come forward and assist the granny take care of the children.