"This is the last photograph I took of Peter Muli, 9, before I left him with his friends on the pavement where they sleep in Mombasa town. I had stayed with Peter, Ruben and Oscar all day. During the morning they had begged outside the main post office, collecting about 40P. They spent the rest of the day at a drop-in centre recently opened by the children's NGO WEMA, where they can eat, rest, and receive counselling and medical care.

Our time at the drop-in centre had felt positive. Peter is a bundle of energy, and regularly breaks into his impromptu gymnastic routines. But I was finding it difficult to leave the boys to sleep on the pavement. I had imagined they had a place in a hotel yard or an empty kiosk, not in the open street. The sad thing is that if you visit the homes of runaways like Peter, you will often see - as they have - that they are better off on the streets.

Peter still has a chance. He has not started sniffing glue, which would quickly rob him of his charm and humour. He only recently came to the streets, because his mother was unable to feed him or send him to school. His main hope is the drop-in centre, where staff will look for ways to return him to his family, or refer him to a children's home. Like most boys on the streets, his greatest wish is to be at school."