From a street boy to lawyer and now millionaire MP
3rd August, 2018
This is the story of South Mugirango MP Sylvanus Osoro
“I ran away from my uncle’s house to the streets of Nairobi so that I could look for food. I stayed in the streets for five months, sleeping on pavements, before one of my uncle’s neighbours found me and took me back home when my uncle was still in jail,” says Osoro.
The neighbour took him to Kihara Primary School, where he stayed for one month before running away to Mukuru kwa Reuben slums to live with another uncle.
But Osoro says his uncle made it clear that he was not able to take him to school, and introduced to scrap metal business. It is from this business that he saved enough money to travel to Kericho with his younger brother.
The MP says his uncle enrolled the two of them at Chemasingi Primary School, where he juggled his studies with a job as a tea picker, earning up to Sh70 a day during school holidays and weekends. Despite this, he performed well in KCPE.
“I scored 406 marks out of a possible 500 and was the top student in our division. I was admitted at Kapsabet Boys High School. But my uncle was unwilling to pay my fees at the instigation of my aunt,” says Osoro.
His relatives, who had squandered most of his father’s property, used dividends from Mwalimu Sacco to enrol him at Kamungei Secondary School. But he stayed for only one term before the money ran out.
Osoro says he went to several relatives’ homes looking for assistance but most of them were not willing to help since some were assisting his brothers and sisters.
