set_charset utf8mb4 not working in php 5.3

Question

For some reason i can't change the charset of the mysqli connection to utf8mb4 on PHP 5.3.0, 5.3.1, 5.3.2, etc... up to PHP 5.4.0.

I have a class which extends mysqli and in the constructor after i successfully connect to the database, i have this code to change the connection charset

parent::set_charset('utf8mb4')

On every PHP version from 5.4.0 and above it returns true and the charset is changed, but on PHP 5.3 it always returns false and the charset remains latin1. Has anyone encountered this problem? any idea how to fix it?

PHP Info.

MysqlI Support  enabled
Client API library version  mysqlnd 5.0.5-dev - 081106 - $Revision: 1.3.2.27 $
Active Persistent Links     0
Inactive Persistent Links   0
Active Links    1
Persistent cache    enabled
put_hits    0
put_misses  0
get_hits    0
get_misses  0
size    2000
free_items  2000
references  3

Directive   Local Value Master Value
mysqli.allow_local_infile   On  On
mysqli.allow_persistent On  On
mysqli.cache_size   2000    2000
mysqli.default_host no value    no value
mysqli.default_port 3306    3306
mysqli.default_pw   no value    no value
mysqli.default_socket   no value    no value
mysqli.default_user no value    no value
mysqli.max_links    Unlimited   Unlimited
mysqli.max_persistent   Unlimited   Unlimited
mysqli.reconnect    Off Off

mysqlnd
mysqlnd enabled
Version     mysqlnd 5.0.5-dev - 081106 - $Revision: 1.3.2.27 $
Command buffer size     2048
Read buffer size    32768
Collecting statistics   Yes
Collecting memory statistics    Yes