Ex-CJ candidate Paul Udoto awarded school bursary
A man who competed against David Maraga for the chief justice post is a bursary beneficiary in Bungoma County.
Paul Andrew Kongani Udoto Kongani, a law student with nine names and who moonlights as a carpenter at Naburereya market, has received Sh50,000.
31 MINUTES
Udoto, a resident of Musikoma Village, on the outskirts of Bungoma town, is studying at the Kenya School of Law in Nairobi to prepare for his admission to the bar.
During his 31-minute interview before the Judicial Service Commission on September 5, 2016, Udoto, 40, hinted at his struggle to acquire an education and land his dream job — lawyer.
The Moi University Law School graduate was disqualified after he failed to meet the 15 years’ experience required for the holder of the corner office of the Judiciary.
Udoto’s life story paints a resilient character who will stop at nothing to realise his dream.
He took 11 years to complete his law degree because he could not afford college fees.
SH250,000 BALANCE
At one point, he said in an exclusive interview with Nairobi News, he had to drop out.
His father (Mzee Wawire Kongani) died in 2004 before he graduated and he had a huge fee balance.
“I was left with a fee balance of about Sh250,000, out of which my mother (Petronilla Nelima) could only afford Sh5, 000,” he said.
“My clan contributed Sh3,000 after a two-year reassurance and my elder brother Sh3,000.”
Luckily for Udoto, while still at Moi University, he interned part-time at a law firm, where he says he acquired two years of experience.
CARPENTER
He later became a freelance legal adviser after all hopes of completing studies had dimmed.
Faced with the uncertainty of ever finishing his degree in law, Udoto, then aged 27, became a carpenter in Bungoma town, putting to use the skills he had acquired during his O-Level studies at Bungoma High School under the tutorship of a Mr Mutoro.
Four years into carpentry, Udoto had raised enough money to return to Moi University to clear his fee balance.
He completed his coursework and graduated in 2011.
“After graduating I got married and travelled to Nairobi with my newly wedded wife where I did odd jobs like [construction work] and my ordinary carpentry to survive in the city,” he said.
MARKETER
In 2012, he was hired as a junior marketer at Barclays Bank, where he earned commissions on top of a Sh10,000 monthly retainer.
“I switched to different junior marketing jobs in different insurance companies looking for an entry point to the legal offices in vain until in 2013, when I decided to go back to Bungoma and revive my workshop," he said.
"I had only Sh3,000, which I used to make a four-by-six-foot bed and after two years I had raised the stock to be worth Sh250, 000."
While in Bungoma he would often pop into an advocate’s law firm to keep his lawyer side active as well as offer free legal advice to people.
STILL IN THE WOODS
By 2015, he had raised enough money to join the Kenya School of Law.
But Udoto is still in the woods. Like at Moi University, he is staring at the risk of dropping out of school.
It is for this reason that the Bungoma County government awarded him the bursary.
An excited Udoto on Monday said the fee sponsorship would help him complete his studies.
On Tuesday, he told the Nation that he was returning to college.
“Though the sponsorship is not enough, it will at least enable me to complete my studies. I also have a friend whom I owe Sh15,000, but I will address that later,” he said.
Governor Ken Lusaka on Monday lauded Udoto's courage and ambition, encouraging him to always aim high in life.
Additional reporting by Wycliffe Kipsang, Harry Misiko and Evelyne Musambi.
