Ride that puts a smile on orphans' faces

By NYAMBURA KAIRUOn one hot sunny afternoon last year, Joyce Kiereini stopped along the Narok-Mai Mahiu road to give a pedestrian a ride. Unknown to Kiereini and the stranger that interaction would lead to an annual bike ride dedicated to the poor and vulnerable.

After hearing about the sorry situation of ten orphans in Narok, the Outriders Association in Kenya started an annual riding event to help. So far, they have helped put six of the children in school.

"This person told me he was going to a home where a woman had died," she remembers. "What I did not know at that time was that the deceased had left behind ten children at their home in Duka Moja at Suswa in Narok County. But when I came back to Narok I got to know the poor state of this family that had also lost their father. I knew then I had to do something about the bereaved children," says Kiereini.
Having been an orphan herself, Kiereini knew what pain, uncertainty and loneliness the children were undergoing.
At the time, she worked with Olmarei Lang Self-Help Organisation, a women’s organisation that helped Maasai pastoral women to identify and achieve their own development activities.
Although much disturbed about the family, she did not go to her organisation to seek assistance for them but instead she poured out her heart to her husband, a biker. In turn, her husband shared the story with his fellow bikers. They were all touched by the children’s situation and went ahead to start the Narok Bike Ride initiative.
"When we heard about this family last year, we started The Narok Bike Ride an annual initiative by Outriders Association of Kenya intended to raise awareness and funding for orphans and vulnerable children in Narok County through Olmarei Lang," says the riders’ association vice chairman, Allan Muigai.
The first ride in July, last year, raised enough money to take two of the younger children to boarding school.
Boarding schoolThe Olmarei Lang (which is Maasai for ‘our family’) organisation also raised enough funds to send another two to boarding school, provide a water tank and start the construction of a shelter for the children.
"Bikers love the thrill of riding and we have been doing it for fun but now we have an even greater purpose. Combining this love of bike riding and fighting hunger and helping the needy in society," says Muigai who is popularly known as DJ Stylez in the entertainment industry.
He added: "We need these children to know that there are people out there who care for them. Being here and spending a whole day with them, I am sure, makes them feel loved."
Gichugu MP Martha Karua flagged off about 40 bikers recently. They did a loop from Nairobi to Narok and back. Sh50,000 they received from General Motors will take two more children to boarding school. The bikers also donated to the family a three-month supply of foodstuff.
Best donation"Education is the best donation we can give to this family," says Douglas Kiereini, the bikers’ association chairman, adding, "education will unblock this cycle of poverty and increase their horizon . . . to open their eyes to the rest of the world and give them a chance to change their lives."
Nicholas Nkukuu Somai, the second born of the family, talked about a life of misery before the bikers’ intervention.
"We have a 40-acre piece of land here but we cannot do any meaningful agriculture because it is dry throughout the year," he says, "we didn’t have even the bare necessities for survival."
Their mother died in April last year after a long illness. By then, the family had sold all the livestock as they sought treatment for her. Their father had died a few years earlier.
As Somai watches the setting sun, he knows his siblings and he will have something to eat and a place to shelter, thanks to the generosity of strangers.