Benjamin Kilonzo and his Form Two son, who have been living in a thicket in Kangundo, Machakos County, after being kicked out of their rented house three months ago over arrears, can now smile after well-wishers moved in to lend them a helping hand on Thursday.
Kahawa Tungu understands the family got a new house, with its rent paid by a local man of the cloth, Reverend Lazarus Musyoka.
Maurice Oloo, a local clergyman, donated Ksh15,000 in house shopping to support the two.
They also received clothes from other local well-wishers after we publicized their plight on this blog.
In photos seen by this writer, the two slept on a tattered mattress with no comfort.
Kilonzo told Citizen TV that he was rendered jobless after local hotels he depended on for menial jobs closed down following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country in March.
This meant that he could not raise money to pay for his rent just like many Kenyans who have been rendered jobless due to the negative effects of Covid-19 on the economy.
He resorted to a makeshift shelter featuring a polythene bag roofing and twigs after his family at their rural Kangundo home rejected him and his son.
The two have been living together since Kilonzo’s wife left him when the boy was two years old.
They were found by the farm owner Catherine Mutuku who was touring her farm.
The woman initially assumed a mentally-ill person was living in the shelter until she talked to them.
Kilonzo said he spent most of the cold nights awake like a watchman guarding his only son.
The school-boy was not able to study as all his books were locked at their former house.
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