From Kasarani slums to national Baseball champions
By Chepkoech Jackline
The vast sprawling slums of Kasarani in Elburgon in Nakuru, Kenya is a typical description of an old, historic timber town. Broken, old abandoned tractors line up the streets of the extensive estates built from timber, depicting a once vibrant town before stringent laws restricted the harvesting of timber in public forests. Here, life, as they say, is lived at a time no matter the struggles.
Here, however, lies a field of dreams of a little-known sport — Baseball which was born from an initiative to empower children from Kasarani.
The initiative, which began in 2002, was started by two brothers, Andrew and Morris Thuku, also residents of Elburgon. It is aimed at bringing together slum children to access free computer skills.
“The high number of children dropping out of primary schools and the growing number of unemployment is what drove us to start a computer school where we converted our old residential home into a classroom and employed a teacher to train willing children, especially those who had dropped out of class eight,” Andrew said.
The brothers used proceeds from their tour company Alice in Africa, to purchase computers and pay a computer teacher.
“At the time, the enrollment was very high because a few schools offered computer studies and the charges to study were high. Most of the students then could join local cyber cafes, worked in the few supermarkets while others pursued video editing and started shooting and editing videos during events,” Morris said.
In a year, the school enrolled over 200 students which were taken in after every three months, students who transit either to secondary schools while others secured jobs.
“Unlike today where students can transit to secondary school as a result of free primary education, most pupils then lacked school fees and girls could drop and get married at an early age while boys engaged in criminal activities for survival,” Andrew adds.
And while others dropped in primary schools to look for manual jobs within the vast slums, others could not proceed to sit for their primary school national exams, a move which the two brothers said prompted them to start a baseball team to bring together the children during weekends.
Although it was a new sport, it was meant to bring together children who would tap the opportunity and later introduce them to computer classes where they could gain skills.
The Baseball club, they said, started almost ten years later and drew children of all ages where they converged at a playing field in Elburgon centre.
“The idea was also to allow those who had dropped in primary school, an opportunity to nurture talent in the little-known game where they could compete with the few teams nationally. We also brought on board, some of our great friends and baseball coaches to train the children,” Morris, who is also a baseball coach said.
As much as the sport had little recognition, the club became the County’s only baseball team, competing with other counties like Nairobi, Machakos and Makueni. The club also gave ambitious players a chance to shine, with the club producing more than four teams.
“The sport drew crowds and the children loved the game. The equipment is locally available and the coaches were there, we took some of the older ones and teachers from the computer school and trained them to be coaches and soon, the club was flying the county name,” he added.
The initiative brought onboard players who had dropped out of school, to further pursue computer courses.
“The fun of the sport is that it commands teamwork and these children soon became a strong team, forming other smaller teams as per age groups under the umbrella Alice in Africa Baseball Club. They have severally competed locally for the past five years in different counties and have been exemplary. Both sports and the need to gain computer literacy skills have empowered the majority of them living in the slums,” Andrew said.
In 2018, the under-17 team were crowned National Champions in the National Baseball Championships.
Three of the players were also recruited to the Kenya National Baseball team.
“It has been a journey from slums of Elburgon, a town prone to fire outbreaks to finally becoming national championships. The dream, however, does not end here, we want to one day represent the country in the Olympics,” Sylvester Mwangi, one of the players said.
“Currently, the Kenyan team, which I am among, has been selected for the Olympics pre-qualifiers in South Africa.”
Mwangi, who joined the club after he dropped out of school for lack of fees, says investing in baseball allowed him to play international championships.
“Most of my time, together with my colleagues, is spent in the training camp in Nairobi, something I never even dreamt of. I have also enrolled in Computer classes and I am confident I can conquer the world someday,” Mwangi says.
A former student at Elburgon DEB, Dennis Mungai recalls that he used to juggle studies with baseball training, which he did every Saturday.
“It is a great initiative because while computer studies is not offered in school, we have a chance to study and also have a future in baseball. I have been a baseball player for the past five years and I am hopeful that one day, I will make it to the national team,” he said.
Most of the baseball players also shoot videos that earns them extra revenues.
“In all the games they have competed, they document and edit on their own. They say this will help them tell their story someday,” said James Maingi, a computer and video-editing teacher.
Between 40 and 45 students are trained in computer literacy every three months, Maingi said.
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