NAIROBI — At the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, when up to 12 million people were infected across sub-Saharan Africa, Nyumbani Children’s Home offered a refuge to Kenya’s dying children. Later, the institute, run by a Catholic charity, fought for the first batches of retroviral drugs for its sick toddlers.
Contributions poured in from American politicians, media personalities and celebrities. Former vice president Mike Pence praised the nun who ran it by name on World Aids Day in 2018 and hosted her at the White House. Congressional tours were frequent.
But behind the smiles and promotional tours, the privately funded orphanage allegedly concealed terrible secrets. In previously unreported claims, six former residents told The Washington Post there were multiple incidents of rape and other abuses of children by volunteers, caregivers and even other children. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s own previous investigation, following a whistleblower’s complaint, found abuse claims at the orphanage “credible,” according to court documents submitted by the orphanage’s Kenyan board in its efforts to oust its director. USAID did not directly support the orphanage, but funded two other associated programs.
One woman sent to Nyumbani when she was three years old said she was abused by a “brother” volunteering from a Catholic religious order when she was just hitting puberty. Like almost all the abuse victims who spoke to The Post, she spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy.
“He was touching my private body parts,” she said. “He told me: ‘You don’t know how to kiss? Let me teach you. … You are a child, you do not know what to do.'”