Building Community - Kericho

We said our final goodbyes, loaded up the vans, and headed towards Kisumu. We planned to stop by the new group home in Kericho, a town between Nakuru and Kisusmu. Nakuru and Kisumu are the two provinces at the center of the recent Great Rift Valley Conflict. Both provinces make up the Great Rift Valley though it is mainly Nakuru as Kisumu is farther to the West.

The conflict started early this year during the elections for the new president. The final two candidates were from two of the major tribes in Kenya, the Kikuyus and the Luos. The Kikuyu people make up 65% of the population in Central Kenya. As the ballots were being counted, the Kikuyu candidate emerged as the projected winner. Enraged, all other tribes across the country turned against Kikuyus everywhere. All the other tribes sought out Kikuyu people to terrorize. All Kikuyu houses were burned to the ground. Kikuyu men and male children were killed. Stabbed, shot, whatever. The women and children were taken, raped, beaten, etc. Many of the victims knew their attackers…many of them were their neighbors. In this time of great bloodshed and political unrest, many lives were lost. Kericho was one of the areas that was hit hardest. All along the road we saw the remnants of burned homes and businesses in a community struggling to cope with its loss.

There’s no questioning when you arrive in Kericho, you just know. It’s one of the most breathtaking settings you’ve ever seen. The town of Kericho is in the business of tea. They are right behind Sri Lanka and India in terms of tea exportation and serve as the tea capital of Western Kenya. The land is covered in beautiful high tea leaves and winding roads.

Settlers attribute the town’s name to John Kerich, a herbalist and early tea planter who lived here at the turn of the 20th century. Locals believe that the town’s name was derived from the Masai chief Ole Kericho, killed here by the Gusii during an 18th century territorial battle. Who’s right is anyone’s guess.

The James Finley Tea Company owns the particular plantation that we visited today. They wanted to do something for the community of tea leaf pickers. They opened up housing on-site for the workers near the school that most of their children attended. They decided that they wanted to open a home for disadvantaged children so they approached Clive and Mary Beckenham about opening a New Life Home in the middle of the plantation. This is the home we went to visit today.

The construction of this new New Life Home community is complete, but there aren't any children living in it yet. There are three houses for the children to stay with the house mother and an assisting auntie and a house for the administrative directors, Andrew and Ruth Too. The idea is that this group home type setup will accommodate orphaned children once they have grown out of the traditional New Life Home system which supports them up to age three. As opposed to turning them over to the government to be placed in foster care, New Life Homes will continue to love, educate, and care for them here at the Kericho home. The Toos are dedicated to raising these children through adulthood.

Andrew, a mechanical engineer by profession, and his wife Ruth, a nurse, have four grown children of their own. Now that the home is finished, they await the day that their new children will arrive. Any day now they will be receiving three-year olds from New Life Home – Kisumu and New Life Home – Nairobi. This new home is located about 30km away from Kisumu.

As we sat down to listen to Andrew speak about his expectations for the new home, a group of school children on their lunch break stared at us from across the fence. We told them to come inside and meet us. They did and eagerly lined up to have their picture taken. Then they sang for us!

Afterwards we sat down to listen to Andrew and hear a few words from the school principal Sally. It warmed my heart to hear how they all planned to take care of these children from the time they arrive, through school, and until they married if they were never to be adopted. They wouldn’t be discarded just because they had outgrown the New Life program, the New Life Homes program decided to extend itself to meet a need. I can’t imagine a more positive, beautiful, loving atmosphere for these kids to grow up in. These kids who were thrown away in garbage dumps as newborns are now living in the lap of luxury. Well, Amen.

After we said our goodbyes, Andrew delivered a prayer for our safe journey and we headed off to Kisumu. Once we arrived, we checked in at the Imperial Hotel. This hotel is apparently Kisumu’s most luxurious hotel and it beats Hotel Kunste by leaps and bounds. After checking in, we left almost immediately for dinner at Kikobo Bay right off of Lake Victoria.

Lake Victoria is said to be East Africa’s most important geographical feature. It graces the shores of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its waters bring mosquitoes and snails making the risk of malaria much higher in these areas. We learned this all too well at dinner! We were run out of the place by mosquitoes almost as soon as we came.

Wrapping Up in Nakuru

We arrived at the Nakuru New Life Home this morning around 8:30. The babies were up to greet us along with the caregivers, directors, and administrators. As we began to assist the staff by playing with and feeding the babies, Anne, the teacher, took us down to the school in groups of five at a time for the open house.


While the first group went, I played with Reuben until he needed to be changed. I was almost immediately given Osten (pronounced like Austin). He is absolutely adorable! He’s a very happy baby, you can tell because he’s always smiling. He’s a big boy and he loves to explore anything that you might be wearing. He explored my shoulder with his gums and left me a little “baby love” on my shoulder!


Finally it was my turn to go down to the open house at the school in the backyard. When I walked inside I was directed to the kitchen where there were small sandwiches, cookies, popcorn, and potato chips. I was told that the staff at New Life Homes had each given 50 shillings to make this possible for us.

The main attraction of the open house was the artwork portfolios that were on display. The school-aged children at the Home completed these portfolios. There were about 20 of them. They were like homemade coloring books, each bearing a different child’s name on the cover. The portfolios displayed the children’s ability to color inside the lines.

In looking at the portfolios, I noticed slight differences in what appeared to be same picture in different portfolios. All the portfolios had the same pictures in the same order, but the pictures looked just a little different from portfolio to portfolio. When Mom inquired, Anne told her that she draws each child’s coloring book page by hand. There is no internet or computer to download these blank drawings so that the children may color them and no copy machine so that she may draw it once and reproduce it the appropriate number of times. The things we take for granted…

That also made me think of something I’d seen the day before. When we got to the home yesterday, we saw a man cutting the grass in the yard…with a machete. We all thought “wow, we should raise some funds to get them a lawn mower.” But when you think of it, we would only be putting that man at a greater disadvantage. When we get them a lawnmower, we turn a job that takes him three days to complete into a two hour job. We would almost cut three days of wages for him.

It’s similar to when a pair of Amani contributors came to the home last year and were deadest on getting a washing machine down to the home for their use. Wilson and Beth had to explain to the generous contributors that the electricity needed to run the washer machine would cost more than paying the women who washed the clothes. It would also cut those women out of work. If we really want to continue to help them, we need to continue to sponsor these orphans. The money that we give cares for a child, the caretaker at the home gets paid to care for this child, that job helps that woman care for her family as she uses the money to feed them, put them through school, etc., this helps the economy survive. Circle complete.

Before leaving, Wilson talked to us a bit about what it was like when the country was at war with one another. The mass killings during the Great Rift Valley Conflict caused great stress for directors of the homes. He recalled how he had to hide in the roof of the home with the Kikuyu babies for their protection. It was mainly the male children because they were the ones begin targeted, but also because there weren’t many Kikuyu girls at the home in the first place. There weren’t very many girls at the home period.

He explained to us that girls are adopted more often. There are always more boys in these homes than there are girls. Wilson said that it is because girls are so vulnerable. They need a mother AND a father to protect them as they are growing up. It is believed that boys will be ok. That these homes can provide the care that they need. He also said that there are always fewer girls at the homes because they don’t come into the homes at the rate the boys do. This is because when some people find orphaned girls they’ll keep them and turn them into maids. They are often abused in situations such as these.

Josem Walker, a friend of the Amani Children’s Foundation, fears the vulnerability of female African orphans. He has 16 children…13 of them are adopted…all of them are girls. That’s not to say that he doesn’t care about what happens to young orphaned boys. He has started a school for them. It has produced some of the leaders seen in the various Kenya communities today.