• Most children carry food back home to share with their siblings.
• Prof Wajackoyah, who was once a street boy, leads the initiative to donate food in Kibera and Mukuru slums.
Image: FILE
More than 100 children queue outside Mashimoni School in Kibera eagerly waiting for their share of the rice and green grams donated by wellwishers.
They are talking amongst themselves, others peeping into the room where the food is served, then rushing back to report to their friends about what they have seen.
Most of the children have their masks on, others as young as 10 years old are carrying younger siblings and trying to keep them calm as they struggle to remain in line.
They have followed devotees from Hare Krishna Temple from the main road so they can receive their share of the donations at their school, a few hundred metres away, down a narrow path with sewerage lines running between houses and businesses.
Leading the donation drive is Professor George Wajackoyah, a lawyer and high-ranking devotee at the temple. When the Star meets the lawyer, he is among a group of people at the temple packing the cooked food into containers and crates for distribution.
The hall is filled with chatter as the group works together to place portions of the rice and green grams into containers, then seal and load into crates.
"We've been doing these donations every day for the past 35 years and our daily distribution is to an average of 2,000 people," Wajackoyah says.
As devotees and the local administration work to set up the 500 meals, others help the children to maintain social distancing and remain in line.
Maria (not her real name) struggles to carry her younger sister while maintaining her position in the line. Her mother has gone to work and she is left to look after her months-old sister.
"We have come to get lunch then we go back home and share," she shyly tells the Star. Neither of them has a mask on.
Down the flight of stairs where the line is getting longer, three older children are chatting. They are in class 6, 7 and 8 and do not seem to be in a rush to get in the line, which has now gone beyond the school gate.
Eric*, the Standard 8 pupil, tells the Star this is the first actual donation they are receiving.
"Sometimes the donations come here but not how we expect them. There are people who take them before they reach us and go share them only with their families," he says.
"I think people are supposed to be called and directly given the donations."
When they receive the food today, they all agree that they will take it back home and share with their younger siblings.
"Sometimes it is easy for our parents to get us food and sometimes it is hard. Like in our family, we are five and so when I receive the food today, I'll go share with the small ones," Eric says.
GRASS TO GRACE
Wajackoyah hands food to the children as they cheerfully thank him and move along. His is a classic story of rising from grass to grace and having the heart to go back to his roots and help those in need.
Born to Kenyan parents at Indangalasia village in Koyonzo Matungu, Wajackoyah lived through a conflicted childhood. When his parents divorced and his father remarried, he was unwanted and left to fend for himself.
He later came to Nairobi to look for his mother. During that time, his father was working as a cane cutter in Uganda.
Upon arriving in the city, he found himself alone and with no place to call home, forcing him into a life on the streets.
Members of Hare Krishna Temple regularly rescued children like Wajackoyah from street life and put them through school.
"I am currently the highest-ranking African devotee in the temple. I was ordained by the founder himself," he says.
Wajackoyah eventually joined the Police department, rising through the ranks to become an inspector.
Wajackoyah received political asylum in the United Kingdom after he was detained and tortured in Kenya. While there, he enrolled in law school, juggling his lessons with his work as a gravedigger by day and a security guard by night.
“I was looking for anything to survive,” Wajackoyah said. “It was very hard. I cried a lot of tears.”
Despite that difficult past, he never gave up. And with that determination, today he can afford to put a smile on other people's faces.
The next stop for the food drive is Mukuru Kwa Reuben to a group of youth under the Kazi Kwa Vijana initiative, cleaning the streets and cutting grass. They are already in a line, maintaining the social distancing rules and patiently waiting to receive the meal.
Harry*, one of the workers, informs the Star that the food from the temple reaches them every day.
"We started this work last week on Monday and every day we have been receiving some lunch, which is good because it helps. However, we are yet to be paid for the work done," he said.
Wajackoyah is joined by area MCA Evans Otiso, who has partnered with the temple to provide the meals.
"With help from Hare Krishna, we provide food to an average of 1,100 people every day and we are very grateful for them," Otiso said.
After they have ensured everyone from the first site is fed, they move to the next site where another group of workers are waiting for food.
"I would like to encourage anyone who would like to be part of this initiative to join us at Hare Krishna," Wajackoyah said.
"This is not a one-day affair, we will continue to do this every day."
(Edited by F'Orieny)