Getting ‘E’ is not the end of life

Nineteen-year-old Raphael Mwakisha is cheerful despite performing poorly in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams — a mean grade E.

He remains optimistic that he has a bright future and would like to exploit his talent in basketball. He is among the 100,000 candidates who do not qualify for middle-level colleges.

Life has been tough for Mwakisha. He is an orphan, who has been fending for himself while attending school at the same time. “Most of the time I was up and down looking for school fees while most of my colleagues concentrated on studies,” he said.

The former Serani Secondary School student in Mombasa is looking for a new start in life, with the odds heavily stacked against him — there are no jobs and good colleges are closed to him.

He is thinking of giving it another shot. “I am ready to go back to school and try to make a second attempt if a well-wisher comes my way,” he said during an interview with the Daily Nation at their home in Tudor’s Kiziwi slum.

On his former school’s notice board, he is listed alongside six other candidates who have the same grade as himself. He said the few days he spent in school were mostly spent on the basketball court, the game he loves and is talented in.

Today, he depends on his basketball skills for his daily bread and is already on his way to Makupa Lakers Basketball Club for trials.

Hired as coach

His former school has hired him as the deputy basketball coach, giving him a small income as he plans his next move. He lives with his poor maternal grandmother, who brought him up, together with his young brother, since the death of their parents. She has been taking care of the boys single-handedly.

Mwakisha scored three Ds in Kiswahili, Geography and English; and posted four Es in Mathematics, Biology, Agriculture and Chemistry. Only 11 students from Narok North District and 10 from Narok South have qualified to join public universities, an education official in the area said on Thursday.

Narok North district education officer Jane Mtange said Isaac Kinuthia from Sister Mary Stephen Nkoitoi emerged the top student in the district, while Ole Tipis’s Lucy Sintei was second. She said 952 candidates registered for the KCSE exam in Narok North, while some 938 sat for the exam in Narok South District.

Announcing the results in her office on Thursday, Mrs Mtange said the district performance recorded an improvement. She also noted that nine schools registered positive results, including two which sat the exams, for the first time.