A Nairobi Street Child Who Found His Voice

Guardian Angel, whose name is Audiphaxad Peter, is a Kenyan singer. As a boy he spent time living on the streets of Nairobi, and in a 2018 interview with The Star he described how that period ended and what came after.

He was among the street children caught up in a rehabilitation sweep, which the article links to approval from former president Daniel Moi. He recalled spending two weeks at Central police station and then some time at Kilimani, and he called the arrest the hardest time of his entire life. He described the conditions bluntly, saying you release your waste in the same place you sleep.

He was then taken to a juvenile facility in Kabete, where staff told him he could ask to be sent home. He chose to go back to his mother, whom he knew was selling vegetables in Kibera. When she saw him, he said, she relaxed, and he was told to come back to the facility the next day to be collected.

At home he helped her sell kales. She later got a job at a children's home in Kangemi, where he went back to school in classes five and six. After she lost that job they moved to Mwiki in Kasarani, and for a year she persuaded landlords to let them in without a deposit. A European man who had paid his fees at the children's home helped him return to school. At Hospital Hills Secondary School in Nairobi he realised that he could sing. His advice to others: your background does not determine where you will be in future.