For some of us it’s a long way back to 12 years old, but it might help to go back there as we meet this boy…In the chaos of the clashes after the December, 2007 elections in Kenya a family hunkers down in terror of the violence all around them. They haven’t eaten in days because there is no kerosene (paraffin). There is a brief calm and Mamma sends her 12 year old boy to buy kerosene in a nearby shop. The usual shops are burned down so the little hero goes on to Molo Town where he finally finds it. On his long journey home he is confronted by a gang of thugs. They beat him, pour his kerosene on him and set him ablaze.

The college student at Kenyatta University in Nairobi has to stop and cry often as she tells me the story.  Who will give this 12 year old boy back to his Momma?