The 57-year-old woman says she started the initiative after the 2007/08 post-election violence when many children lost their parents and others were left behind with no one to take care of them.

| Mercy Koskey | Nation Media Group

How a single mother became mum to 30 abandoned children

At midnight on December 17, 2019, Elizabeth Adanbwa was woken up by the cries of an infant who had been abandoned at her doorstep.

The baby lay on the ground hapless, only wrapped in a piece of cloth despite the biting cold.

Later she took the child to the nearest health facility and she learnt it was three months old.

The following morning, she informed a Nyumba Kumi official and the area chief about the incident.

She was granted permission to keep the baby until its parents showed up but that never happened.

This was the first child she rescued. Now the child is two years old and in good health.

Ms Adanbwa, a resident of Sewage, Nakuru Town East, has since rescued 30 other babies.

She has converted her three-bedroom mud house into a haven for abandoned children.

Here, the children have shelter, food, security and love from a stranger they call their mother.

The 57-year-old woman says she started the initiative after the 2007/08 post-election violence when many children lost their parents and others were left behind with no one to take care of them.

A church that housed more than forty children affected by the violence was closed down, leaving them with no shelter and one to turn to.

Her journey started in 2008 when she took in 10 abandoned children and started taking care of them.

The children were initially under the care of a local bishop, who left for Nairobi with some of the children.

But from what started as helping post-election violence victims, she later found herself taking in more children abandoned in the streets by their parents at a tender age.

The children have found solace in the hands of the woman.

They grow up knowing she is their mother.

“I have rescued many young children and I am always told by authorities to keep them until their parents show up but that never happens,” she says.

Prosecuted for abandoning their children

“They fear that they will be arrested and prosecuted for abandoning their children. I am not registered but I have legal documents that show that I am staying with them.”

Ms Adanbwa, a resident of Sewage, Nakuru Town East, has since rescued 30 other babies.

Photo credit: Mercy Koskey | Nation Media Group

After 13 years, the number of children in the home has grown from 10 to more than thirty. They are all lucky to be enrolled in school to continue with their education.

When we caught up with Ms Adanbwa at her home, she was still babysitting some of the children.

A visitor could easily mistake the home for a children’s rescue centre.

We found some of the children playing all over the compound.

Those going to school had just returned home.

Three girls and two boys who were under her care have completed secondary school and have secured jobs with the help of Ms Adanbwa, their “mother”.

They help her raise school fees for the younger children.

The single mother of four depends on well-wishers, who donate food and clothes.

“I had to open a daycare centre to at least get something to feed these children. They are not mine but it always pains me to see them going hungry. During weekends we help each other.”

She revealed that once a client brought a child to the daycare centre but disappeared, leaving her with the burden of raising and educating the child.

She says that in addition to getting help from the community, her family has been supportive and they sometimes help raise money to help the children.

Sometimes help with house chores

“People donate food and clothes and they sometimes visit them. They spend time and play with them and sometimes help with house chores.”

She has a child who sat her exams this year, she says, and another who will do so early next year.

Others are in grades Four, Three, Two, One. Two children are in PP1 and others will join school this year.

Her joy, she says, is seeing the children continue with their education and she hopes they will achieve their dreams.

She is appealing for help to finish a four-bedroom permanent house that she says will better accommodate the children, and to pay school fees for them.

“People have come out to help us in building the new house. They donated materials and another came and started the foundation but it has stopped. I would like help to complete it.”

The newest child in the home is a 14-year-old boy from Ndarara, Loitoktok, Kajiado County, who arrived in May after living in the streets for about a month.

Bernard Mushomba Mota says he left Kajiado for Nakuru to look for a well-wisher to help him fund his secondary education after the guardian he was living with said she could not pay school fees.

The family he was living with depended on menial jobs like tilling people’s land and the little they earned was for food and not enough to pay school fees.

He says he was abandoned by his parents when he was only four years old. He had left to play in the fields and when he returned home he found the doors closed.

He was taken in by neighbours, who offered shelter and food and paid for his education for 10 years but that support ended in May.

“My parents left me and my two siblings when we were young but I don’t know where my two sisters went after we parted ways. I hope they are alive and fine wherever they are,” he says.

After sitting for his exams, he started herding cattle and sheep in the neighbourhood for a fee hoping to raise money to pay for his education but the wages were inadequate. 

He says he was paid Sh1,500 in the first month, which was not enough to cover term one fees and buy school uniforms and other necessities.

His friends, after noticing his interest in education, advised him to look for someone to help him.

He then left his rural home in Kajiado County and landed in a new strange city that he had never visited before and where he knew no one.

He says he left his home with only his exam results, admission letter, a bag of clothes and Sh1,500 for bus fare hoping to find a well-wisher, only to find himself in the cold corridors of Nakuru streets.

But after living in the streets and surviving on begging, sometimes going for days without eating anything, he met a Good Samaritan.

He recalls the event that led to his meeting with Ms Adanbwa, who took him in after he shared his story and interest in education.

“I was just walking with my friends carrying my envelope when I met mum. I explained my whole story to her and she agreed to take me in,” he says.

“At least I have somewhere I can call home but I want to continue with my studies.”

The former Ngasakinoi Primary School pupil scored 277 points despite the challenges he faced and was selected to join Enkorika Secondary School and he is appealing for help.

He was supposed to report on August 2 and needs more than Sh70,000 for school fees, uniforms and other necessities.