Beth Wangari and Faith Wambui are sisters aged nine and eleven years respectively. They currently live with their dad Livingstone Kibue.

The girl’s mother died two years ago after a short illness. Since then, Livingstone has been the only parent to the two girls.
Livingstone doesn’t have a stable job and is hence involved in some manual jobs so as to be able to feed his family and pay house rent and school expenses for the girls. It has not been easy for him but his believe in God and his desire to see his girls succeed has propelled him to work even harder.

During the start of this term, the two girls were sent away from school as a result of accumulated tuition fee balance at the school. The two girls owed the school 10,000 Ksh (10,000 Kenya shilling is equivalent to about $100).  Livingstone shares that he was ailing for most of the time last year and hence was unable to work. This led to many accumulated debts not only at the school but also with food vendors.

He approached the school at the start of February and informed the head teacher that he was willing to work for the school at no pay to clear the debt. The school management agreed and he is now a nighttime guard at the school. The money he is earning goes towards clearing the pending bill. He has been relying on friends to support his children.

When he reports to work at night, the children are left alone which is also a risk to the girls. Livingstone has shared with me that what hurts him the most is leaving the girls unattended each night.  He keeps praying that they are safe. If he gets someone to help him pay school fees for the girls, Livingstone shared that he can look for a day time job and be there for his children when they return home in the evening from school. This would also enable him to feed for his family and hopefully cater for other needs.

The family lives in a single room with no electricity or water. They use charcoal to cook and a lantern at night.