Boniface and his wife, Pauline, live in Ongata Rongai, a small town near the capital, Nairobi. They have two daughters: Joyce, who is in her third year of school, and 16-month-old Sharon.
Their home is a two-bedroom apartment, one of 20 in a single-story block. Boniface works as a taxi driver at the international airport in Nairobi. Each morning he leaves home at 4:30A.M. in his white Toyota-cracked windshield, 200,000 miles on the odomoter-and is back by 10 P.M. On a good day he finds two clients. In a typical month he takes home about $215.
"It's a hard job, but I like it," he says. "I meet new people, so I get some experience of the world-even though I have never been outside Kenya."
Pauline is a dressmaker but isn't working right now. She stays at home to take care of the kids. The weekend is often the only time Boniface sees Joyce and Sharon. Boniface and Pauline met 12 years ago: "We liked each other immediately," says Boniface. "I didn't want a woman from the city, so when I learned that Pauline was from the country, I was pleased."
They married a year later, and at first they lived in a slum. They often didn't have a lot to eat, just sukuma wiki (a green vegetable). Then, Boniface won $90 in a bicycle race. The money helped them move to a better area and paid for driving lessons so that Boniface could become a taxi driver.
His salary doesn't go far. Rent is $45 a month, and he gives the same amount to his parents, who don't work. Also, as the most successful of six brothers and sisters, Boniface is expected to help their families, too. He says, "I am always so stressed about money." Joyce's school fees cost another $40 a month. "We are trying to give our children the best education," says Pauline, who, like her husband, never finished school. "Joyce wants to be a doctor."
Next year, Sharon is going to preschool, so Pauline will have more time to start her own dressmaking business. By then, the family might have a new home. "This apartment is not a good place to raise a family," says Boniface. "The bathrooms are communal-one for every four families." Boniface plans to build a three-bedroom house in the suburbs of Nairobi.
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