KENYAN BOY TO CLIMB 3 MOUNTAINS TO RAISE FUNDS FOR HIS SCHOOL TO BUY A BUS

Lang'ata West Primary School, where he studies, has over 1,500 pupils who either walk every day to school or have to use public means to get to school. This poses a dangerous situation for the children going to school. The students often get to school exhausted.

Joshua Kimkung, an 11 year old Kenyan boy, is preparing to conquer 3 Mountains: Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Meru and Mt Kenya in a bid to get his school get a bus.

For Joshua, hiking is not a new thing for him, just last ye ar, he succe s s fully summited Mt Kenya to the peak. It took him 6 days, a not so popular hiking route, a positive and enthusiastic spirit to reach the peak at only 10 years old.

“I climbed Mount Kenya for the first time in 2019,” Joshua says, adding he “decided to climb Mount Kenya after I had tasted the beauty and adventure of Le Satima.”

Before the thrilling adventure, Joshua had “hiked various hills in the country” to prepare his “system both physically and mentally.” The prep hikes included hiking Elephant Hill, Rurumeria and Ngong Hills.

The Mount Kenya climb took him six days, from 21st to 26th November 2019. “We used Kamweti Route, which is not as popular with mountain climbers as the other routes. It was snowing on as we climbed higher, and one of my cherished memories is walking in the snow and scooping it with my gloved hands.I had a very supportive team of experienced hikers, and my mum was also with me,” Joshua narrates.

His desire to summit 3 mountains stems from the want to raise funds for his school to buy a school bus. Lang'ata West Primary School, where he studies, has over 1,500 pupils who either walk every day to school or have to use public means to get to school. This poses a dangerous situation for the children going to school. The students often get to school exhausted. Joshua lives far from school and there are challenges with the private

BY SOPHIA NJERI

owned buses. The bus that Joshua uses carries other children from other schools having a total of 4 different schools in the same bus. The bus has to go to and from each school which takes quite some time and sometimes the bus may leave without some pupils due to lack of follow up from the coordinator, this has happened to Joshua several times.

During last year’s hike to Mt Kenya, Joshua raised a total of Ksh 143,940, which has been used to organise and engage new logistics for the current campaign towards 3 summits. This year he decided to exceed his limits and summit 3 mountains on the December 1st to the 23rd and raise the full amount needed.

Joshua will be hosting a virtual dinner on the 27th of September to facilitate he’s scale up Mt Kilimanjaro. Attempting to summit 3 mountains back to back will be a challenge, which Joshua is preparing for. He wakes up at 5.45am and runs for about 3.5km 4 times a week. Every afternoon he plays football from 2pm - 5pm 4 times a week and when not playing football he goes for an evening run. Joshua will be the first 11 year old boy to attempt to summit 3 mountains back to back. His mother, Martha Mugi Kimkung, photographer Danson Njoroge and cousin Trevor Peter Tumbula will accompany Joshua on his trail on the 3 mountains. Mt Kilimanjaro will take 8 days to scale, Mt Meru will take 5 days to scale and Mt Kenya will take 5 days to scale. Joshua has had prep hikes which prepares his body for the ultimate climb. Last year in January 2019, he started the New Year with the Kijabe Waterfall Chase. It is located in Kijabe Kinale Forest, at an altitude of 2600m. This moderate hike took him about 7 hours. The place is beautiful, and it has a magnificent waterfall. Him and his team walked through a village, along the railway track, and higher up a hill to see the waterfall before ascending further to the summit.

In March 2019, he hiked Rurimeria in the Aberdare Range. It took about 9 hours to climb to 3860m. Later, in May same year, he hiked the bamboo trail of Elephant Hill. This would lead to another hike in September, which combined Elephant Hill and Mount Kinangop. This 34km hike helped him understand his body better, as he got closer to the Mount Kenya expedition. Other places he has hiked are Le Satima, Sleeping Warrior & Ugali Hills, and Ngong Hills. Le Satima was his first hike, in 2018. It is within Aberdare National Park. You can follow Joshua’s hike on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and via hiswebsite - www.joshuakimkung.com/home