Joseph Njoroge: Former ‘chokora’ rescuing boys from the streets

Joseph Njoroge former criminal and now founder of Global Hope Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, a Children home located in Ngong during the interview. (PHOTO: NANJINIA WAMUSWA/ STANDARD)

I was born in Huruma slums in Eldoret to a single mother who sold illicit brew to make ends meet.

My mother’s meagre income could not support me and my three siblings (I am the second born in a family of four children: Three boys and one girl). When we lacked food, we would take the brew, popularly known as busaa.

We loved our mother but since she could not meet our needs, we decided to go to the streets to fend for ourselves.

Together with my elder brother, we went about looking for food for ourselves and younger siblings.

In 1988, we left the two younger siblings — I was seven years old then — on the street in Eldoret where we used to spend our nights to go and look for the day’s food.

When we came back, we did not find them. We learned that they had taken to a children’s home. My bother travelled to Nairobi to join other street boys and I remained in Eldoret for three years.

Life in the streets was hard. Sleeping on an empty stomach was the order of the day. Whenever the situation became unbearable, I would engage in pick-pocketing to get money to buy food.

Finally, I decided to travel to Nairobi in the belief that life there was better. Being new in city streets, I was harassed by fellow street boys. I became hardened, and soon learned survival tactics. I engaged in all manner of street vices in my one year in Nairobi streets.

Muli Children’s Family (MCF), a Christian-based charitable organisation rescuing needy children, rehabilitating them and reintegration back into society, would bring us food on the streets.

After spending one year in the cold city streets, the founder of Muli Children’s Family, Dr Charles Muli, talked to me while distributing food to street children in Nairobi. He took me back home to Eldoret.

Though I was lucky to get basic needs and continue with my education at MCF, I would once in a while sneak back into the streets. But Dr Muli was committed to ensuring I remained in the home and continue with my education. He was patient with me and counselled me whenever I made wrong decisions.

In secondary school, my life took a better turn when I decided to focus on my education. MCF also took me through college where I studied mechanical engineering at the Rift Valley Technical Training Institute (RVTTI) in Eldoret.

I secured employment in a private school in Ngong, but I deeply desired to put a smile on the faces of street boys. I requested the school administration to allow street children to attend classes in the school.

The school approved my request, only to chase away the 10 street boys who had reported to school a week later. I was not around when the boys were being sent away.

I was so discouraged. In 2012, I quit my job and started a football club for the boys with the little savings I had. That is how Global Hope Rehabilitation Centre was born.

As I interacted with them, they shared their problems and others expressed their passion to go back to school.

I lived with two of them in my rented house. Neighbours who noticed their behaviour change started supporting me. I needed more space to accommodate the boys and I secured four two-bedroom rental houses, courtesy of Muli Children’s Family, on the outskirts on Ngong Town.

I have since rehabilitated 108 street boys and placed them in various schools in Ngong. We host 28 of them in the centre. After rehabilitation, others go back to their families.