4 years ago, a 6 year old Emily Wanjiru stood in front of President Uhuru Kenyatta among other dignitaries to entertain them with her famous poem titled “Mvua Hii”.
That was the beginning of good fortune for Emily and the end of her woes. She was awarded full scholarship until secondary level, together with her family they were gifted a new home and on top of it all, she got to join a new school.
Fast forward to 2018, Emily’s life has dwindled back to the struggles that she once faced. She lives in a dilapidated house that has no basic utilities such as electricity, proper roof or water.
Her family suffers from a clogged sewer which allows raw sewage to float around.
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Little Emily and her family were moved from Thika slums to a two-bedroom house in Juja. She was then offered a full scholarship at St Petrock School in Runyenjes, Embu County, which would cater up to her Secondary school education.
She was visited by various people such as Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, Team Uhuru led by Dennis Itumbi among others. The groups donated generously towards Emily’s plight and future.
Juja Equity Bank branch manager Francis Mbindyo set up an account for Emily and her grandmother and gave her grandmother micro-entrepreneurship training to help her manage a small-scale business that they had set up for her.
Today, Emily’s performance in school has dropped drastically, due to her state of living and the challenges that she once again faces.
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He family was kicked out of the home that they had moved to after Team Uhuru failed to pay rent as they had promised, forcing them to move to Kiambu town.
According to the Standard, Itumbi’s team paid rent for 2 years, furnished their house, did shopping for six months and even provided a frequent stipend of KSh10,000.
“The president promised to educate the girl, which he did and continues to do. The Kiambu County Government gave the family a house. Honestly, we have done our best to help the family to a level that is respectable,” said Itumbi.
Emily’s mother says that putting food on the table has become a struggle as she is sometimes forced to go and pick food from a nearby dumpsite.
Emily is just one of the few children that President Uhuru Kenyatta adopted. Another one of them includes Daniel Owira, a now graduated Highway Secondary School Alumni.
Owira is now a Mass Communication student at Multimedia University.
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