This new focus on environmental conservation and tree planting led to the establishment of a charcoal production facility at Yatta. Over the years, most trees in Kenya had been cut down to be used as firewood. But with the new focus on tree planting to produce milder microclimates, not just around Yatta and Ndalani, but also throughout Kenya, Charles reasoned that he needed to produce an efficient fuel people could use for cooking without having to cut down trees. That fuel was charcoal. Not only was charcoal a more efficient fuel, but also it didn’t produce the same amount of carbon dioxide as wood when burned, thus helping to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Charcoal was already being used in most of Kenya’s large cities. However, those living in the countryside did not use it. Instead they resorted to cutting down trees. Charles hoped to change their habits.
In 2011 Charles received his second honorary doctorate, this time in social work from the Kabarak University in Kenya. Daniel arap Moi, the chancellor of the university and a past president of Kenya, personally conferred the degree on Charles.
Spurred on by local and international interest in conservation, Charles developed an ecovillage at Yatta, complete with solar, wind, and biomass energy sources. MCF started the annual Renewable Energy Awareness Day to showcase what they were doing and how it was impacting the surrounding community for good. They also offered help and advice to those interested in starting their own environmental improvements.
Of course, Charles was delighted that the children in Mully Children’s Family were grasping the importance of taking care of and nurturing their environment. He was also delighted with their other achievements. The MCF karate team became the karate champions for Kenya and went on to scoop the East and Central African trophies. The MCF children continued to graduate from high school with high marks. The MCF high school consistently ranked in the top ten high schools in the country, and around one hundred students a year went on to the next level of education at vocational colleges, technical institutes, and universities.
In 2014 Charles turned sixty-five years of age, and Mully Children’s Family celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding. But Charles showed no signs of slowing down. That year he received a Transform Kenya Award in the education category. The aim of the Transform Kenya Awards was to recognize and celebrate those people who, through innovative approaches, were doing remarkable things to improve the lives of Kenyans. As he accepted the award, Charles reminded himself that he still had a lot more to do. He had more innovative approaches to institute, not only for the members of Mully Children’s Family, but also for Kenya and Africa.
Chapter 15
“Always Continue Doing Good”
Toward the end of 2014, Charles’s father, ninety-one-year-old Daudi Mulli, became ill with cancer. He was hospitalized in the intensive care unit in Nairobi in February 2015. By then MCF had established a permanent office in the capital city. Charles chose to work from there so that he could visit his father several times a day.
On March 4, 2015, Daudi asked Charles to bring all of his brothers and his mother to the hospital. As they gathered around his bed, Daudi, whose cancer had spread to his lungs, making it difficult for him to breathe, rallied himself and half sat up.
“I will be leaving soon,” Daudi said. “I am passing the baton to Charles. I want you all to listen to him. He will take you to a higher level. You must live in peace together and act as a family. Then God will bless you and your children and grandchildren.”
As Charles stood by his father’s bedside, he marveled at how much he had grown to love and admire the man. In the years since his father had become a Christian, God had transformed him from a stubborn and cruel man into a loving father. Daudi had learned how to interact with others and truly care about them. Many people told Charles how loving and kind his father was. Daudi had been elected an elder in and a chairman of his village church and spent many hours each week encouraging young people in their faith.
Two days later, Charles visited his father during his lunch hour. As usual he stood quietly beside the hospital bed. After a few minutes his father woke up and said, “Ah, you are here.”
“Yes,” Charles replied.
“There are people pushing me to go on a long journey, but I do not want to go until I have told you to always continue doing good things for the people. Continue to help the children. Continue to lead. Do not give up. Help the poor.”
After a pause, Charles asked, “Is there anything you want me to tell the people?”
“No, nothing else. This life is a journey, and now I must complete mine,” his father said.
Tears welled up in Charles’s eyes and spilled down his cheeks as he kissed his father goodbye. At five o’clock that evening, Charles received a phone call from the doctor saying that his father was not doing well. He hurried to the hospital, but Daudi had died by the time he got there.
As Charles drove back to his office, his mind flashed back to when he was a child and afraid of his father coming home drunk every night, afraid that his mother would die after a beating. He remembered his family repeatedly abandoning him and refusing to help him when he was a small boy with no support in the world. He recalled how he had struggled to feed and educate himself. Most of all, he thought of the time he had called his father before the subtribal council and had watched as Daudi was lashed by the young men. Another five minutes and his father would have been dead. But something had made Charles intervene and plead for his father’s life. Charles also recalled how, after the visit to the witch doctor, Daudi had slowly come to realize that he was serving the wrong spirits, that the Spirit of God was far more powerful than the spirits of his ancestors. After this, Charles had seen his father and mother blossom into a kind, compassionate, and godly couple. His parents had spent many hours together praying for the work of MCF.
Daudi’s funeral was an event like no other. In accordance with Kamba tradition, it was held in his house, though the people soon spilled out onto the street. Over three thousand dignitaries, church elders, farmers, and children stood side by side in the hot sun. Charles spoke about how our lives can be likened to a marathon. Some people, like his father, might not start off strong, might falter and lose their way, but can still finish strong.
“It doesn’t matter,” Charles said, “that you have never done well. What matters is that you finish strong and that you keep moving forward in faith. In life, success is measured not by the humbleness of your start but by the greatness of your finish. My father finished his race as a great man. I do not feel like my father has really died. He has gone on before me to meet Jesus, and one day I will follow him.”
After the funeral service, Daudi was buried on his plot of land. The family then went back to the MCF property at Ndalani to eat dinner together. It felt good for Charles to be with his biological children. They were all grown up now, and every one of them had a degree except Isaac, who had an IT diploma. Half of them were married, and between them they had given Charles and Esther ten grandchildren—seven granddaughters and three grandsons.
Over dinner the Mulli family talked about the past and how the older children remembered when Daudi had become a Christian and then a wonderful grandfather. They talked about the present—the three thousand children now in their care and the ten thousand they had cared for who were now grown up and had “left home.”
Mully Children’s Family now had seven operating locations in Kenya. The original location in the Mullis’ old home in Eldoret still operated, with a focus on rescuing orphaned and vulnerable children in the Rift Valley and the western provinces of the country. Most of the children rescued through the work in Eldoret were relocated to the Ndalani or Yatta facility to live. These two locations functioned as the main centers of operation for MCF.
Close by was another facility, located at Kangundo, which ran as a drop-in day center providing free primary education, food, clothing, medical care, and spiritual counseling to orphaned children in the area who lived with grandparents or other family members. In Vipingo, a rural slum located near the coast, just north of Mombasa, MCF had a facility that worked with needy boys and girls, many of whom had been abused. This location dispensed free meals and an ongoing education program. Many of the girls currently being rehabilitated at Yatta were from this area. A location in the Kipsongo slum in Kitale was situated north of Eldoret near the Ugandan border. This facility provided free meals and primary education to needy children in the slum.
MCF’s newest base of operation in Kenya was currently being established in the far north at Lodwar in Turkana County, near Kenya’s border with Ethiopia and South Sudan. This area of the country was arid and prone to droughts and famines. It was also one of the most underdeveloped areas in Kenya. Poverty and illiteracy were rampant, as was a lack of basic services such as hospitals and schools. Charles was excited about this new location. He looked forward to MCF providing free food and education, along with clothing and clean drinking water, to the needy and vulnerable children of the area.
Mully Children’s Family had also opened a branch in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in neighboring Tanzania. As the Mulli family talked about the future, Charles contemplated his next dream—creating a Christian university at Yatta to serve the MCF students and the poor of Kenya. His plan was that the courses taught would be focused on training young people to become leaders in Kenya and other areas of Africa. The school would offer courses in agriculture, the environment, conservation, renewable energy, education, social development, and entrepreneurship. Thirty percent of the positions in the new school would be reserved for very poor students who would have no other hope of attending university.
Late that night after the funeral service and dinner, when everyone else had gone to bed, Charles and Esther went outside. They sat quietly for a long time looking up at the spectacular night sky. Charles broke the silence. “It has been quite a journey, these past twenty-five years, hasn’t it, Esther?”
Esther smiled and turned to him. “It has, but God has led us.”
“Yes,” Charles agreed, “and it’s not over yet. The university is our next big challenge. Are you with me in it?”
“Yes,” Esther replied.
Charles laughed. “You know the biggest hurdle of all is getting other people to understand the vision God has given me. Some people, even Christians in our organization, are negative about it. They say we can’t hope to get three thousand students attending the university. But I believe God will bring them around, and then we’ll go on as a team, together.”
“I believe too,” Esther said, reaching for his hand.
Charles smiled at her. “We must keep praying until it comes about, Esther. Prayer is the work. All the rest is results. The last thing Daudi told me before he died was ‘Always continue doing good things for the people.’ With God’s help, I’ll never stop doing that.”
