Thanks to a bursary, this man dreams on

Joel Mwaura flew in last week from Bermuda ahead of his grand wedding on Saturday.

A senior auditor with the international auditing firm, KPMG, he’s up there with the very best.

He got the job after graduating top of his class with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Kenyatta University in 2003. But Mr Mwaura was not always a high-flier.

The first born in a family of eight narrowly escaped the fate of thousands of other bright children who cannot pursue their dreams because they come from poor backgrounds.

“After excelling in his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, his unemployed parents could not raise fees to pay for his learning at Alliance High School,” says former Alliance principal Christopher Khaemba.

Mr Khaemba says he pursued the young Mwaura’s admission when his plight came to his attention

Lose one year

“He secured a scholarship with the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation which sustained him up to Form Two when he left for Friends School Kamusinga and I had problems with the funding,” said Mr Mwaura this week.

Despite the difficulties, which included being sent home perennially for fees, the young Mwaura scored a mean grade of A in his KCSE in 1996.

But he was to lose one year of university education because Alliance did not release his results slip, which is a prerequisite for a successful application for a Higher Education Loans Board loan.

Mr Khaemba would again come to his rescue after he came back to Alliance as principal.

“On taking over at Alliance, I released his results and also wrote to Prof George Eshiwani (then Vice Chancellor of Kenyatta University) to allow him to report to university two years after he had been admitted.

“Prof Eshiwani admitted him, and on top of the loan from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), the university gave him a bursary,” Mr Khaemba said in an interview.

Mr Mwaura has now managed to educate his seven sisters up to college level. “When you help one bright child you don’t know what number out there you are helping along with him,” he said.

His is just one of the few cases in which a star was not dimmed by poverty.

Anthony Mabonga, another former student at Alliance High School will be graduating from Harvard University in May this year.

He has been in Harvard on an annual university scholarship of about $60,000 (Sh6,400,000 per year).

He and his unemployed parents were squatters in Uasin Gishu when he sat his KCPE in 1993.

“His plight was brought to my attention by his primary school teacher. In high school he consistently performed among the top three students in the entire class.

“He was among the three students I had admitted to Harvard on a full scholarship in 2007,” says Mr Khaemba today the inaugural dean of the African Leadership Academy in South Africa.

Another beneficiary of his philanthropic heart is James Mathenge who is currently doing a year abroad at the London School of Economics on a full scholarship upon graduating from Alliance High School.

In 2007 Erastus Njaga Wangari scored 389 marks but could not proceed to secondary school because of lack of fees.

He instead sought a job as a shamba (farm) boy in Mukurweini from where he was rescued by his MP Kabando wa Kabando.

“He had been working the shamba in scorching sun for two months when I heard of his story and directed my CDF committee to pay his full fees at Kagumo High School where he had been invited to,” said Mr Kabando.