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CS Tuju: I wore my first underwear at Starehe Boys


Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju did not know what underwear was until he went to Starehe Boys’, he has said.

The Secretary General of the Jubilee Party, and second-time cabinet minister, revealed that he was given his first ever underwear at Starehe Boys’ Centre by founder Dr Geoffrey William Griffin.

“I had never worn innerwears until I came to Starehe. I came here bare…I was a miserable poor little boy when I came here and my first innerwear was given to me by Dr Griffin,” he told boys at an event to mark his old schools’ 60th year anniversary, on Friday, much to their amusement.

“What are you clapping for? Are you clapping for innerwear or are you laughing at me?” he asked the applauding boys.

NEWS ANCHOR

Tuju went on to become a news anchor on TV in the late 1980s and early part of the 1990s, and later the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rarieda constituency.

Starehe Boys’ Centre and School – one of Kenya’s greatest high school- was founded in 1959 by the late Dr Griffin, Geoffrey Gatama Geturo and Joseph Kamiru Gikubu, as a rescue centre in Nairobi for poor and destitute boys orphaned by the Mau Mau uprising.

It has stayed true to its initial charitable purpose, by enrolling needy boys.

The charitable school educates at least 70 per cent of its students free, and the rest at a reduced rate.

It gives students from all walks of life an opportunity to get a public school education that would otherwise be beyond their means.

POOR BACKGROUND

“I’ll never ever underestimate the contribution that Starehe Boys has had in my life,” said, Tuju who claimed to have come from a very poor background without giving full details.

Tuju went to Majiwa and Nakuru West Primary Schools before joining Starehe for his secondary education.

The 60-year-old ex-legislature, told the tickled boys that he had walked all the way from Nakuru to Starehe where he met Dr Griffin to implore him for a vacancy at the school.

He said initially he was turned away but was later accepted. He did not explain the circumstances under which he was rejected and then re-considered for a scholarship at the school.

He went on, “Griffins saw potential in us. All we needed was the opportunity and he gave us that.”