When Purity was born with Down syndrome, her mother, Anne Limo, remembers feeling crushed by fear and uncertainty.
“I think for me, of course, there is that feeling that, why me?” Limo said. “Why did God have to punish me with this?”
The delivery had been difficult. The news from doctors was devastating for a family navigating a society where children with intellectual disabilities are too often hidden away.
“We could not even have that joy of showcasing the child,” Limo recalled.
In many communities, families raising children with disabilities face isolation and stigma.
“Usually the father says, no, this is not my child,” Mary Seronei, a family neighbor said. “Many don’t even come outside for people to see. They hide. They lock them.”
But Purity’s father, Julius Kandie, made a different choice.
“We took it positively as parents,” he said. “God has given us this child, and we are going to accept and support her just as she is.”
That decision changed everything.
From the very beginning, Purity’s parents made a conscious choice that their daughter would be part of the world around her.
“Whenever we attended a function, we took her with us,” Kandie said. “Every place we went and every ceremony we attended, she came along. We exposed her to different experiences from a very young age.”
That exposure gave Purity confidence.
“She grew confidently,” he said. “She would not see any sign that she is discriminated.”
Her sister, Linda Cherotich, remembers how intentional their parents were about inclusion.
“My parents really pushed her to engage with people and to engage in sporting activities,” she says.
At first, even members of their own family struggled to understand.
“It was a shock,” Cherotich admitted. “And it took time for me to accept her the way she is.”
But over time, Purity’s personality changed hearts.
“I got to understand that she is a very warm, kind-hearted, and happy soul,” Cherotich says. “It was easy for me to love her and to embrace her the way she is.”
That acceptance inside the home became the foundation for everything that followed.
When Purity first arrived at school, Limo was overwhelmed.
“She asked me, ‘What can I do with this girl?’” Caroline Wamela, Purity’s coach remembered. “I said there’s a lot of things we are going to do in her, and by the end of the day, you’ll be happy.”
The transformation started on a school sports field.
“From the word go, Purity was a winner,” Wamela said.
She ran the 20-meter race, then the 50-meter dash. She competed in standing jump and dance. Everywhere she went, she excelled.
“She was the best,” Wamela says. “She came top.”
Sports became more than competition.
“Sports played a very, very big part of Purity’s life in terms of development,” Limo said. “One thing is because of exposure.”
That exposure eventually carried Purity far beyond her hometown.
In 2019, she traveled to Abu Dhabi with Special Olympics, winning bronze in athletics and silver in dancing. In 2023, she competed again on the world stage in Berlin, where she won gold in the 50-meter race.
“Imagine having a gold medal, something that we used to see on screens,” Limo said. “We had to feel it, to touch it.”
Kandie still struggles to believe how far she has come.
“Purity has gone several places where I have not even reached myself,” he said. “She has gone to Abu Dhabi, she has gone to Berlin.”
Then he pauses.
“Who could have told us that child could reach those places?”
Purity herself says it simply: “I love running,” she says with a smile. “I love sports.”
When Purity returned home with medals, the community celebrated.
“It was a celebration in this community like no other,” Seronei said.
“We have children [without intellectual disabilities], and none in this community has ever run and got a gold medal.”
Her success challenged long-held assumptions about people with intellectual disabilities.
“The people who witnessed her bringing the gold,” Seronei said, “many of them have gone back to say these children must be taken to school.”
Cherotich saw the shift happen in real time.
“At least they got to witness what she can do, given the opportunity,” she said. “People learned to embrace her the way she is.”
Even the church community began changing.
“She’s very confident,” Senior reverend Harrison Kimani, said. “People come into fellowship because they’ve seen one of them given an opportunity to minister and to be embraced.”
Her choir director, Ruth Kipsang, described Purity standing proudly at the front of the choir.
“She’s always at the center, the front line,” she said.
For many people, Purity became living proof that inclusion benefits everyone.
"She has actually opened minds of several people,” Kandie said, “that children with disabilities can become very important people in this society."
“This is a story that needs to be told,” Cherotich said, “so that even others, their children can be exposed, their talents can be identified.”
Purity’s journey did not stop with medals and recognition.
Her parents began thinking about something even bigger, her long-term independence.
“We are here today as parents. We don’t know tomorrow,” Limo said. “Purity’s life has to continue.”
Using earnings and opportunities connected to her success, the family made a decision that reflects both love and planning.
“Let us do something small that will be generating something for her,” Limo said.
Together, they invested in rental homes that can provide Purity with future income and security.
“So that Purity down the line,” explained Special Olympics Kenya interim CEO Vincent Mungai, “she can be able to get her own investment, get her own resources.”
There was a time when Purity’s parents feared there was no future ahead.
“We were even seeing dead end in her life,” Limo said. “What will she become?”
Then she began coming home from school with medals and recognition.
“We started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Today, Purity is an athlete, a singer, a traveler, a beloved church member, and a source of pride across her community.
“She’s way better than me in many things,” Cherotich said. “The warmth that she shows even to people, I feel like I can never get close to that.”
Looking back now, Limo wishes she could speak to the frightened woman she once was in that hospital room.
“Had I known that time that the plans for God to Purity were as great as they are now,” she said, “maybe I wouldn’t have carried that burden of negativity throughout my life.”
When a child is loved openly, included fully, and given the opportunity to shine, the sky is the limit.
“Everybody has something in them that can stand out,” Limo said, “if given the right opportunity in the right environment.”
