Muli Children's Home and Eldoret's Quiet Legacy of Compassion

By William Kiptoo

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 26 July 2025.

"I grew up in Eldoret… at Muli Children's Home."

That is what a Nairobi Uber driver told me recently, and in one sentence he reminded me of Eldoret's quiet legacy of compassion.

Back in the day, Eldoret was not just about athletics. It was a lifeline for children with nowhere else to go. Homes such as Muli, Testimony Homes, Jesus is Lord Ministry and Bindura gave children food, shelter, music and education.

The Story Behind Muli

The home my driver spoke of is better known today as Mully Children's Family (MCF). Its founder, Charles Mulli (also written Mully), was born in 1949 at Kathithyamaa village in Kangundo, Machakos. Abandoned by his family as a small boy, he begged in the streets before walking to Nairobi in search of work. In 1970 he bought his first vehicle and started a public transport service between Eldoret and Nyaru, the beginning of the Mullyways business that made him a wealthy man and tied his name to Eldoret.

In 1989 he did something few people could understand. He sold his property and businesses and gave himself, with his wife Esther, to caring for abandoned and street children. That was the beginning of Mully Children's Family. Over the years the family has taken in tens of thousands of children, and its centres have included Eldoret, Ndalani and Yatta, and later places such as Kitale, Kilifi and Lodwar. Many of the children were given not only shelter but schooling, training and a trade.

A Generation of Quiet Heroes

Muli was not alone. Eldoret's churches and families ran homes and rescue centres where children found a bed, a meal and someone who believed in them. Many of those children are now grown. Some, like my driver, are thriving, living proof that rescue works.

Today there are government rescue centres, but they are underfunded and overstretched. What we miss most is the heart and passion of those early days, and the generation of quiet heroes who gave children more than a roof. They gave them hope.

If you grew up in one of these homes, or worked in one, your story belongs in this archive too.

See also Bayete and Bindura. Background on Charles Mulli from published profiles of Mully Children's Family.

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