Morris Mwenda back home after day on the streets

Over the weekend, Morris, who amazed the country with his mastery of English as he spoke of opportunity, had gone back to the streets. (Photo: Edward Kiplimo/Standard)

The organisation that took on the responsibility to care for Morris Mwenda, the famed former street boy, has said that he is back in their shelter.

Over the weekend, Morris, who amazed the country with his mastery of English as he spoke of opportunity, had gone back to the streets. Appearing in a video shared on Facebook, he said that he and his friends (15 boys) ran away from the Gachie home where they were being housed because they were being caned and "can't stay there".

But speaking to The Standard over the phone, founder of the home Shamit Patel said the boys had called the house mother and said they wanted to go back home.

Mr Patel said they had been running the home for one and a half years and that this was normal when trying to rehabilitate street children. "This is just a small misunderstanding, just like all families have with their children," he said. He also denied that the boys had been beaten.

"We have been speaking with Morris and are going to put up another video with him explaining what he meant," he said.  Homeless of Nairobi has been posting Morris's - and the rest of the boys' - progress on their Facebook page and said they did not want what they have been building over one and a half years to be destroyed through misinformation.

"This weekend, a simple family argument turned into national news. It's difficult to quantify emotions through words in moments such as these. But what matters is that the boys are back home," wrote the organisation yesterday in a Facebook post.

In the video, Morris claimed that a lady at the house where they had been housed for less than a month, caned them. He pointed to one of his friends and said they "were all hurt because he had slept outside on Wednesday" and pulled his sleeve to show an injury he claimed to have gotten after the beating.

Morris appeared to be intoxicated saying, "I have been hearing rumours that 'Morris has been taken by Mike Sonko' and that I'm living in a big house, a good, ventilated house but we will not go back to Gachie."

Morris appeared with three boys in the video and appeared to be their leader, asking each of them in turn if they would go back and each responded that they would not.

The boys' education had been paid for by Joe Karuiki, a businessman who offered to be a sponsor for all the 30 boys at the home. In the video, Morris said that they wanted to go back to school but that they were uncomfortable living in the home.