Schools to start filling unclaimed Form One slots
Secondary schools are set to start filling the Form One slots that were not taken up by the January 16 deadline.
There are many students who could not report to the schools they were selected to join because of lack of school fees.
For instance, Bwire Emmanuel Juma has had to defer his dreams of joining his dream school even after excelling in his KCPE exams.
Bwire, the last born in a family of six, scored 395 marks out of 500 at Fekija Vision Centre in Kayole, Nairobi County, emerging second best in the school.
His father, Joseph Juma Odero, a “jua kali” electrician says, that he is unable to raise Sh53,554 per year needed to take his son to Butula Boys High School.
He says efforts to seek assistance from Equity, KCB and Family banks had been futile.
In Mwiki, Kasarani in Nairobi County, another family is facing the same challenge.
Steven Odhiambo Onduto, an orphan, scored 371 marks in last year’s KCPE emerging position two at Murema Primary School but he is yet to join Malindi High School where he had been called.
The boy lost his mother three months ago and now stays with an aunt, Jacinta Njeri Atieno, who does manual labour to fend for a family of nine members.
She is his only hope to realize his dream of one day being an Engineer yet the aunt is in no position to raise the needed fees.
“The boy is from a single family. The mother who was just baking doughnuts, died three months ago leaving behind three children. I have four children and in addition to the ones she left behind, the family is so big to manage considering I am just washing clothes for people and my husband is a manual labourer,” said Ms Atieno in an interview with the Nation.co.ke
A similar scenario is facing Nicole Wangu as she contemplates her next course of action. She is distraught after failing to report to school and is now staring at a bleak future.
Last year, the girl had been forced to drop out of school in Form One because of lack of fees opting to go back to Standard Eight with the hopes of finally getting sponsorship to pursue secondary education.
The 15-year old got 390 marks at Wangu Primary school in Dandora and was called to join Karima Girls in Naivasha but her dreams seem to have hit a similar fate as before after again failing to get any sponsorship despite trying unsuccessfully to be one of the lucky ones to be picked by Equity Bank’s ‘Wings to Fly’ programme.
Her mother, Josephine Wanjiru, says that she has tried to raise the required fees without much success.
In Githurai, another parent is in a dilemma on what to do with his daughter. Wilson Muriuki says that he has tried all ways to get money to take his daughter to Naromoru Girls Secondary School without success.
“I was working at Kenyatta University but I was terminated and now I just hawk jackets for a living. I have three children and my wife is working in a salon where she is just being paid commission. I have tried KCB scholarship, Family Bank and even constituency bursaries without success,” said Muriuki.
Her daughter, Lucy Wangui scored 380 marks in 2016 KCPE but is now contemplating working as a house help if she does not get help to join secondary school.
Additional reporting by Agewa Magut.
