The man who gave up all to bring up strangers’ children

A begging bowl held before the rich, often in foreign countries, defines the storyline of many institutions that help destitute children in Kenya.

But one man has single-handedly defied the stereotype and, brick by brick, built a children’s home in the sprawling plains of Yatta, Machakos County, relying on his own effort.

Instead of asking for donations, the children from the home have become so self-reliant that they donate food and other social services to the neighbouring community.

Mully Children Family (MCF), named after its founder, Mr Charles Mulli, 65, is home to at least 2,500 destitute children and young mothers.

Since he first conceived the idea 25 years ago, he says more than 8,000 children have benefited.

“Initially I just wanted to feed these children, but later I wanted something that could give them more than the bare minimum and make them productive members of the society,” Mr Mulli told Lifestyle.

INTERNAL FUNDING

The children eat food grown at the MCF farm, which over the years has been built into a large mechanised, commercial enterprise fetching revenues of about Sh8.5 million every week from French beans and tomatoes exported to Europe.

MCF has always relied on internal sources for funding until recently, when Mr Mulli opened the door for well-wishers to donate.

Mulli’s children, as he prefers to call them, begin their learning in kindergarten, through primary to secondary school at the centre.

There are also vocational training centres for construction, tailoring, beauty and hairdressing services.

Each year, at least 100 students from the centre join various institutions of higher learning and Mr Mulli says he pays their tuition fees, visits them and attends their graduation.

Born in abject poverty and at some point working as a gardener for a Goan family in Nairobi, Mr Mulli had always yearned to help destitute children grow into “proper adults”. By 1989, he was a 40-year-old who had done well for himself in the transport and energy sectors. 

Through his company Mulliways, he supplied gas cylinders to supermarkets, owned 28 public service vehicles plying the major routes in the Rift Valley and was a key figure in the insurance business.

Mulliways was also a distributor of international tyre brands and had interests in real estate.

In the middle of this catalogue of success was his first love, commercial farming, which he practised in Eldoret.

REALITY OF POVERTY

Then one day, walking in Nairobi, he had an experience that brought back the reality of poverty. A group of street children had asked him for food in exchange of watching over his vehicle.

He ignored them, but on returning from running his errands, he found the vehicle’s wheels had been stolen.

It is while on his way back home on a bus that he decided to do all it took to give street children a home.

But noble and philanthropic as the idea seemed, the father six was consciously aware of the odds he had to work against.

He needed money, a lot of money, to provide the social services that the children desperately needed.

Be that as it may, he was careful not to rely on donors because of the air of scandal that sometimes surrounded externally funded children’s homes.

“People may be justified to call owners of orphanages greedy and corrupt and I did not want these kids to grow up someday and find out I used them to fund a lifestyle that I did not have previously… I wanted them to know that they are lovable enough for someone to toil for them,” he said.

So he sold some of his property and used the proceeds to build MCF in Pioneer estate in Eldoret, starting with three children in 1989.

By 1995, the number of children were more than 1,000 and he had to look for more space.

SHARE SECRETS

That was when he turned to an unattractive tract of land in Machakos County. Committed to his approach Mr Mulli moved his six biological children from their high-end schools to come and learn with the destitute children at the MCF primary and secondary schools.

“That was the biggest war I have ever fought, but now I see them calling each other over the phone, sharing secrets as though they are born by the same mother. I am happy,” he said.

He and his wife Esther also moved to Yatta permanently.

“Children have to see you — you cannot tell them you love them yet they barely see you or you live in a different place,” he said.

Critics have judged the life he gives the orphans at the centre as lavish.

But he believes these children need additional provisions — beyond food, clothing and shelter.

In the early years, fresh food — particularly vegetables and fruits — had to be ferried from Eldoret to Machakos. But towards the end of 1996, with one tractor, Mr Mulli began farming in Yatta, mainly driven by the need to have an alternative source of food because his bank accounts were drying up.

Pastor Josiah Murigi is tasked with providing psycho-social support to the children.

Mr Murigi says he had previously underestimated the effects of trauma, until he started working with the children at the centre.

“When they walk in here they are… unattractive,” he said. “Some are wild, aggressive, and suicidal — and after they narrate to you what they have been through you cannot blame them.”

His devotion to the children, Mr Mulli says, is fortified by his faith in God.

“God called me into this. Without His help you cannot love children that are not your own,” he said.