94-year-old Nyeri man's gift for the elderly
Mzee Nduhiu Njama in Nyeri.
What you need to know:
- The retired headteacher and father of six has given up his Sh6 million mansion he built in 1992 in Kiawaithanji, Tetu constituency, to be converted into a home for the elderly.
- When he announced to his family that he will be giving away part of his assets, his grand-daughter June Njama says that due to his humble nature, it was not a surprise to them.
Ninety-four-year-old Nduhiu Njama is on a mission to put smiles on the faces of elderly people in his home county of Nyeri.
Realising that the county is urbanising fast and the younger population that is supposed to look after the elderly in rural areas is leaving home in search of job opportunities, leaving them alone, he has decided to convert his mansion, which sits on six acres, into an elderly persons’ home.
The reason behind this, according to Mr Njama, is that the traditional role that children have of taking care of their ageing parents is fast changing and they need to be comfortable in their sunset years.
The retired headteacher and father of six has given up his Sh6 million mansion he built in 1992 in Kiawaithanji, Tetu constituency, to be converted into a home for the elderly.
“Before my wife died in 2003, we always wanted to do something to give back to the society but we had not decided on what to do. But since she is now gone, I have no one to share the property at my retirement home with,” Mr Njama told the Nation Wednesday.
In 2015, he registered a charity foundation known as ''Gladys and Njama foundation,'' a rescue centre for bright girls who are unable to pay for their secondary school education.
It is this foundation that Mr Njama has given the right to take care of the property that he feels will help the elderly once renovated. Once the board has vetted the most needy cases, Mzee Njama says he will vacate the house and leave for Nairobi to stay with his children.
When he announced to his family that he will be giving away part of his assets, his grand-daughter June Njama says that due to his humble nature, it was not a surprise to them.
“We did not object to his wish that part of our inheritance be used for construction of a home for the aged,” she said. In an earlier interview, Ms Joyce Wanjiku, who works with Purity Elderly Care Foundation, a non-governmental organisation taking care of the elderly mostly in Nyeri County, said many old people are deprived of strength, in poor health and most likely with little or no pension, many are living from hand to mouth.
“The foundation receives phone calls from people asking if we have a home for the elderly, which is very sad, but there is a need to have one,” Ms Wanjiku said. Mr Njama says his father hated him to the day of his death because he ran away from their home at Ol-Pejeta, Nanyuki, to his grandmother’s home in Nyeri so that he could enroll for primary school at an African government school. At the time, education was perceived to be only for the whites.
His father despised education which, he believed, drove away Africans from their culture. After passing his Kenya African Primary Education (KAPE), he was unable to pay school fees for Alliance High School, prompting him to join the Second World War.
After fighting in the war, he got a scholarship to pursue education at Kabete Ex-Servicemen's College.
Now, with the 100 percent transition policy to enroll pupils in secondary school, he says education will no longer be a major problem among communities.
