Before
After
Residence: Rolling Hills Residence
Background:
Mutuku Mueni is 9 years old. His exact date of birth is not known. He used to live with his uncle, aunt and their 2 children. He is in standard 2 and in his last exam, he was position 10 out of 19 kids in his class with 390 marks out of the possible 600 marks.
His mother passed away in 2004, after battling a sickness for 3 ½ years. Her elder brother (Mutuku’s uncle), was the one who took care of her treatment with the little money he could spare. She was not married.
There is a lot of rivalry within the family about the division of the land. The first wife (his step-grandmother) does not want the family of the second wife (his maternal grandmother) to inherit any of the land and they fear that if the grandfather passes away before the land is divided, their portion will be stolen from them and they will be chased away. The step-grandmother doesn’t like Mutuku and she has even made threats upon his life.
On their 1 acre piece of land, they plant maize, beans, cowpeas and pigeon peas. The uncle earns an income from tilling other people’s land. They live in a brick and iron sheet house. Mutuku use to sleep on the ground with an old torn mattress and used clothes and an old blanket to cover himself.
