11 Kibera KCPE pupils get Sh3m scholarship

Philtricia’s potential had been noticed earlier; at one point she got an air ticket from Prime Minister Raila Odinga, also the area MP, to tour Kisumu as the mayor’s guest.

The trip and her father’s constant reminder that there was no hope apart from education made her focus sharper on studies.

Other pupils the Saturday Nation was able to trace to the studios of the community radio station, Pamoja FM, are Agripiner Amatemo, Fred Juma Onyango and John Atela.

With the sad and hopeless 2008 gone, these few chosen pupils ushered in the New Year with a great hope for a better life. “I just thank God for all this. I promise to work hard and become an aeronautical engineer,” said Fred, who scored 405 marks in KCPE.

His father, Mr John Ogada, a city security guard, was also excited. “I have five children, and all I have is a primary education certificate,” he said.

“On a salary of Sh5,000 (a month), Fred would not make it to secondary school.”

Fred remembers sleeping on an empty stomach on the eve of the exam in November.

“I promised myself that I had to pass, since I knew that someone would recognise that I have the talent,” he said.

His elder brother also wrote the exam and scored 383 marks. Mr Ogada knows, however, that life will still be hard.

“There is food, there is the rent for the single room I stay in, but these young men need sabuni (soap),” he said. The mother is dead.

Another parent, Ms Margaret Mulee, Agripiner’s step-mother, was equally happy.

“She (Agripiner) would have ended up just like many of the girls around here,” she said. “Pregnancy and social evil.”