Buronica Khabukwi Inambatu

Buronica Khabukwi Inambatu was born in 1939 in Shirere, Kakamega County. She was the sixth child in a large family that faced constant hardship due to her father's lack of stable employment. While her father often wandered away from home, her mother worked the fields alone to keep the children fed.

She never had the chance to attend school because her parents could not afford the fees. Instead of an education, she spent her young years performing manual labor on neighbors' farms to help her mother. She lived a life of toil, focused entirely on the survival of her family rather than her own future.

After years of laboring at home, she reached the age of marriage and settled in Rosterman. Her life continued to revolve around tilling the land, as she and her husband worked side-by-side to sustain their household through small-scale farming and herding cattle.

Buronica gave birth to one daughter, whom she fought hard to educate. However, her daughter’s education ended abruptly in Class 8 when she became pregnant; at that time, social stigmas meant she was never allowed back into the classroom. Today, that daughter lives in Musa, but she remains trapped in poverty with a husband who lacks steady work, leaving her unable to offer any financial support to her aging mother.

The weight of survival became even heavier eighteen years ago when Buronica’s husband passed away. Left alone in her old age, she would wander the village in search of manual jobs, but when no work was found, she resorted to eating wild roots and tubers. There were many nights when she would simply drink water and sleep, her body aching from both hunger and the physical toll of her years.

Her life changed on July 13, 2023, when she was registered for the Mama Ibado program after a village elder recognized her suffering. She now receives essential supplies, including maize flour, rice, sugar, cooking oil, salt, and porridge flour. These monthly rations ensure that she and the six family members who depend on her no longer face the terror of an empty kitchen.

"In the past, the pain of hunger was so severe that I would cry out at night, but now I have the peace of a steady meal," she says.

Beyond the nutritional support, Buronica relies on the program for medical care to manage her failing eyesight and other age-related illnesses.

Buronica still requires urgent assistance because she lives in a fragile, one-roomed mud house that is in poor condition. With six dependents relying on her and no family members capable of providing support, she remains entirely dependent on the kindness of donors to keep her family safe and fed.