Newton Kamau Mutura
Age: 17 years
Grade: 11 (in 2020)
Scholarship Started: 2018
Newton hails from a small village called Tharua in Tigithi Ward.
Newton has gone through a lot at his age. After his parents’ separation, he has been tossed back and forth between her mother, father and his grandmother and to crown it all. Newton is the fifth born in a family of six. He was born in Nairobi County before they moved to Laikipia County with his family, when he was three years old.
He can’t recall much but he remembers his mother left them under the care of his father. Realizing the struggle her son was going through to bring up the children, his paternal grandmother decided to take them all in. No one was aware of his mother’s whereabouts but after some few months of search, they received a call she was imprisoned. Newton’s father decided to pursue her and convinced her to come back home after her jail term. But when she came back, she picked all her children and left for Murang’a (her parents’ home) when Newton was four years old.
She left her kids under the care of their maternal grandmother and Newton’s mom left for Nairobi. Those were two toughest years for the children. Newton’s mother never bothered to pay them a visit and or send money for their upkeep. His grandmother was a casual worker and the little she earned was only enough to buy food. At some point, Newton was plagued with jiggers (a parasitic insect that typically gets into the feet from dirt floors), which was very painful for a small child.
With the little his grandmother earned, she enrolled Newton in a nursery school. For the next three years Newton’s mother was still nowhere to be found. Then, her mother came back and, without warning, got all her kids from their grandmother’s house and took them to Nairobi.
She was a hawker in streets of Nairobi and she would be gone for days. She didn’t care how the children would eat for those days she was away and sometimes they were even locked out of the house by the landlord due to rent arrears. They sometimes sought refuge from their neighbours and other times slept on the streets. School was part of the past because their mother never bothered to enroll them in a school.
Newton’s mother got remarried and life became unbearable. Their stepfather was not ready to take care of the children as they were not his biological sons and daughters. The kids could not bear with the mistreatment thus decided to run away. They went to live with their maternal grandmother in Murang’a County.
Newton’s mother didn’t allow their biological father to take them in and it’s at this point one of their aunt who is a journalist took it upon herself and decided to pay their school fees. They, however, used to call their father occasionally and plead with him to come for them. But whenever he would do that, it resorted in a fight with their mother.
In 2016, Newton did his grade 8 exams but despite getting good marks to join high school he didn’t get a sponsor to take him to secondary school. He thus decided to repeat grade 8. However, he insisted he wanted to go back to his father’s house. His mother was against his decision but that didn’t deter Newton.
He reunited with his father in 2017 and enrolled in a neighbouring primary school. In January 2017, his father received news that his mother was found dead in her house. His father gave her a decent send-off despite her not giving him a chance to bring up his children.
Newton considers his maternal grandmother as his mother. She is the most important person in his life since she was by their side through thick and thin. Some of the challenges he faces at home are lack of food because his father depends on casual work and lack of electricity thus making it difficult for him to study.
Newton wants to be a neurosurgeon. A passion he developed since his childhood. He was motivated by Gifted Hands book by Ben Carson.
If given a chance to change his community, he wants to improve the road networks which are in deplorable condition.
Newton would like to thank his donors and requests them to continue assisting needy children in the communities. With a very serious face responds, “if I didn’t get a sponsor, I was ready to repeat grade 8 the second time.”