For a boy who found himself living on the streets at the age of 11, Andrew Owinyi’s story is one of inspiration.
Born in Mumias 35 years ago, Andrew was an only child. He went to live with his grandmother after his parents separated.
After dropping out of Standard Two, Andrew had no prospects for the future as far as formal education went. The streets were his only option.
“My grandmother could not raise school fees so I ended up in Bungoma Town where I loaded long-distance trucks,” he narrates.
In the Western Kenya town, the homeless boy would sleep under lorries and buses, but he says it was better than being idle in the village. He calls this his turning point and vowed he would never to go back to poverty in the village.
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One day an opportunity arose for Andrew to come to Nairobi after a conductor of one of the trucks failed to turn up. Since he had made a name around the bus station in Bungoma, the driver chose him to stand in.
“I had really yearned to go to Nairobi, I told the driver that once we got to Nairobi, I would not go back with him as my journey would end there,” he says. He was 16.
In Nairobi, he found himself on the streets again. This would be his home for the next five years where he worked as a potter and a loader. He lived behind the city’s Marikiti Retail Market, sleeping in parked buses. In the morning, he says, he would take a shower in a City Council toilet.
“I never engaged in any criminal activities; in fact, my friends knew that there was a line I could not cross. I was also relatively clean for a person who survived on the streets,” he says.
He left life on city streets four years later after he rented a house in Kawangware at Sh800 per month. A friend introduced him to a church in Dagoretti Corner.
Getting off the streets
An opportunity came knocking when a friend wanted a barber in Kilimani. Despite having no experience, he took up the opportunity, making a commission of Sh150.
“I started working by lying that I had been a barber in Lavington and Kileleshwa, but one day I messed a client’s hair and got beaten,” he recalls.
After this experience, Andrew opened up and told the owner of the shop that he did not know how to shave but was willing to learn. After training, he worked at the shop for eight years before he left to start his own barbershop.
He says that when he started his own business, he moved to Congo in Kawangware where he paid a rent of Sh2,500.
“I had to move when the landlord said he would not rent to barbershops anymore. I got another place at Sh15,000, but I did not stay for long since the landlord hiked the rent after seeing top of the range vehicles coming to my shop,” he says.
He moved to a location along Ngong Road, but when expansion of the road to a dual carriageway started, clients found it hard to access the place. He had to close shop and go back to employment.
“I believe in making money for myself using my own hands, so this was a stop-gap measure,” he says.
Covid woes
Andrew started his own business again but this also soon ran into headwinds.
“When Covid-19 hit and restrictions came, the business had to wind up again until they were eased that is when I moved to a new location along Kindaruma Road,” he says.
His shop offers services such as shaving, manicure, pedicure, facial and massage. He has employed five people. He says he has retained most of the clients he had when he started his business.
To give back to the society, he started Fresh Cuts Foundation. He points out that there is nothing like being self-made but people just hide the fact that someone held their hand and helped them grow.
He says: “Due to my background, I decided to give young people a chance to train in this job for free; it all started as I would go to the Nairobi Women’s Hospital and offer shaving services to those admitted for free.”
He decided to enlist the help of young people whom he would train.
Giving back
Andrew confesses that he did not know what he was doing would change lives since those he had trained would go back and start working to earn a living. Then he met Dave Muthengi (Holy Dave), a musician, who urged him to register it as a foundation.
About ten per cent of whatever his business makes goes to the foundation, which he says has assisted more than 200 young people and people living with disability.
He is grateful for friends who have helped a lot with the foundation.
“My dream is to set up training centres in numerous areas to help young people find their footing,” he says.
But this work has not been without challenges. One of them, he says, is opposition by politicians who feel threatened when his foundation offers help to the youth in their areas.
“They usually think I am interested in their positions and we also face the problem of lack of equipment,” he says.
He is, however, happy with his work and business that he says feeds his family. He has been married for five years has a daughter.
“Many young people have ended up on the streets during this Covid-19 period, but I want to urge them not to give up. I could serve as an example because I decided to run a barbershop and never gave up,” he concludes.
