Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss, And Hope In An African Slum

In Chapter 2 we learn more about Kennedy’s birth and impoverished childhood in the slums. His mother was an unwed 15-year-old, which meant danger for Kennedy: “In the village, it was common for the mother’s male relatives to kill baby boys born out of wedlock” (21). When both his mother, Ajey, and he survived the breech birth, and rains quickly followed what was an intense drought, the elders viewed Kennedy as a good omen, thus sparing his life. He was named after John F. Kennedy because of the study abroad program in America, started by JFK, that educated many young Kenyans.

His grandmother, Esther, raised him with kindness and joy until her death when he was only 3 years old, after which he was sent to live with his mother in the capital city of Nairobi where was treated poorly by his alcoholic and abusive stepfather, Babi. His mother had previously escaped two arranged marriages to older men, literally running away from them, but when she was given the ultimatum to either get married or be ostracized from her community, she chose marriage. They lived in such intense poverty that they often didn’t have food, weren’t able to wash and had bug problems.