Whenever you visit Kimathi Street in Nairobi, you will find 50-year-old Cecilia Nambuya, a woman from Shauri Moyo, Nairobi seated on the concrete, drawing portraits which freeze passerby on their tracks as they awe at her gift.
Looking at her displays, one can identify extraordinary lookalike drawings, from Raila Odinga, President Uhuru Kenyatta, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, to Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko.
Cecilia, however, is currently a form three student at St.Peters Clever Secondary School in Makueni. A school that is sponsored by a religious organization.
“My favourite subjects are English, Physics, Kiswahili, Mathematics and Business studies,” Cecilia affirms.
However, the mother of five boys was forced to drop out of school as she could not raise Ksh4,000 per term.
Her drawings have been her source of survival for the five months she has been out of school. She depends on well-wishers who either give her a few coins for food or buy some of her drawings.
According to Cecilia, in an interview with Citizen Digital, she has to move from street to street to showcase her talent in a bid to earn some money, a move she crafted since she started selling her portraits in December 2018.
She has high hopes of raising her fees from her artistic talent, depending on the fact that more people will buy into the idea of her drawing their portraits, something that only a few people have been receptive to.
However, the kind people only pay her a low sum of money.
Apart from studies, Cecilia wishes to bring her family together again after poverty and homelessness tore apart her family.
Her boys have to seek shelter in a children’s home because she cannot afford to offer them a better life.
