County Clerk who once lived on the streets, fed from bins

Kirinyaga county Assembly Clerk Kamau Aidi during the interview. PHOTO: JENIPHER WACHIE/STANDARD

KIRINYAGA: Many times when we see our leaders, we assume that they were born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths. We fail to recognise that some of them, just like us, have had to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to get to where they are today.

One such man is Kirinyaga County Assembly Clerk, and former dean of students at Kenyatta University, Kamau Aidi.

The urge to do good for humanity is what drives the 44-year-old who says he picked the attributes from “three important pillars in my life”.

These are his adoptive father Sergeant (Rtd) John Muhia, Senior Chief Joseph Kamau Geoffrey of Kiganjo and President Uhuru Kenyatta, all natives of his Gatundu South backyard.

Aidi says he probably would not have made it through secondary school, after scraping through primary school, had Senior Chief Kamau - then his teacher at Ikuma Primary School, not held his hand upon learning about his deprived background.

The young Aidi missed school repeatedly after his single mother took off in search of a livelihood, leaving the then seven-year-old to fend for himself.

He became dependent on whatever was given to him by Good Samaritans and he slept out in the cold, often left to scavenge from dustbins.

“When Kamau learned of my predicament, he advised me to choose Starehe Boys’ Centre, where students from poor backgrounds were better placed to get sponsors.

When I was instead invited to join Muhoho High School, he personally took me to Starehe to fill forms for a scholarship awarded by the Save a Child Fund. I was successful and this catered for my secondary school fees,” he says.

The older man was not done. Having helped Aidi secure a place in Starehe, he turned to Kiganjo Catholic Church - where he was the secretary at the time, and asked fellow congregants to support the young man.

“Sympathisers came together and bought me everything I needed to join Form One. Kamau effectively launched me on the path to high school,” Aidi says.

The senior chief who quit teaching in 1999 for the provincial administration says of Aidi: “I first met him in Standard Four in 1984 when I was posted to Ikuma Primary School and he struck me as bright, albeit with a shaky background.

He was living with Good Samaritans, away from an absent mother who could hardly fend for him, let alone pay fees. I was his class teacher in Standard Eight and the school’s deputy head teacher. I knew he would do well in KCPE.”

Aidi’s date with his second benefactor came during his vacation break in high school in 1988.

“I had nowhere to go when we were released since none of the Good Samaritans I had lived with during my primary school days were willing to take me in,” he says.

As fate would have it, a woman – who was a member of the Kiganjo Catholic Church that had raised funds for his secondary admission requirements - empathised with Aidi and asked her husband to allow him to live with their family on humanitarian grounds, but only temporarily.

“Her husband was Sergeant (Rtd) Muhia, and he ended up adopting me as his son. The couple had four children of their own, all of them girls.

They gave me a home to which I would return during the school holidays. I was like the first born son of the family and when time for my initiation came, he took me to the elders and did all that was expected of a father,” Aidi says.

Sergeant (Rtd) Muhia refers to Aidi as mtoto wangu (my son). “I am the one who named him Kamau, after my own father,” he says.

He describes Aidi as a likeable, brilliant boy.

“He was a Godsend and made my family complete. I adopted him legally. While he came to us in need, he later helped me as I struggled to educate his four sisters, three of whom have been through university. The fourth one is sitting her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) this year,” he says.

After he was done with secondary education, Aidi was admitted to Kenyatta University to pursue a Bachelor of Education degree. Weighed down by a backlog of fees, the wind of fortune once again blew through his life when his path crossed with that of President Uhuru Kenyatta. His third benefactor.

“It was 1996 and I was a Third Year student when I heard that Kenyatta’s son was going around Gatundu mobilising youth with the intention of starting a youth project. I was interested and went to one of his meetings,” he begins.

“After the meeting, I mustered courage and asked him for a lift to Kenyatta University (KU) on his way back to Nairobi. He had no objection. During this journey back, I poured my heart out to him and we immediately struck a rapport.

Uhuru paid my entire school-fees backlog and would pick me from KU from time to time for functions in Gatundu then take me back to campus. By 1997 when he contested for the Gatundu parliamentary seat and lost, I was working in his office giving logistical support.”

Aidi graduated in 1998 and was posted to Narok Teachers College. His desire to pursue his education saw him once again turn to Uhuru who sponsored him to pursue a Master of Science degree in management administration at the United States International University.

“Not only did the President pay the Sh500,000 needed for my two-year course, he also gave me Sh10,000 every month as pocket money and upkeep and to pay rent at my Zimmerman home,” he says.

Aidi says he was staggered by Uhuru’s big heart: “One day I asked him what I would ever do to repay the kindness he had shown me and his reply was disarmingly humble. He said ‘Kamau, I am not doing this so that you can tell my story one day or even pay me back. When you can someday, just do good to another person out there’. I was lost for words!”

Telling his story makes Aidi’s face brighten up. Today, the married father of two intentionally seeks out postings that will see him add value and light to people’s lives.

“The philosophy I live by is to always help where I can. I strongly believe that if we can tap into the goodness inherent in people, we can change lives for the better and consequently, make this world a better place. From very humble beginnings, see where I am today just because big-hearted people saw the good in me,” he says.