- Boy's single mother died when he was only seven months old
- Grandmother hopes Musyoka will get a scholarship for his secondary education
Image: FILE
An orphaned boy has beaten the challenges of banditry attacks, abject poverty and severe lack of water in his home to emerge one of the top scorers in Kitui county in the just released KCPE results.
John Musyoka, 15, scored 418 marks at Ukasi primary school in Mwingi East subcounty which is a banditry-prone zone. Residents engage in frequent battles with camel herders from the neighbouring counties of Garissa and Tana River.
The area also faces acute water shortages in most of the year. It is common for school children to miss classes while helping their families search for the commodity kilometers away from their homes.
It is against these odds that Musyoka emerged the best candidate in his school and also earned himself a top position in the whole county.
The boy's single mother died when he was only seven months old.
His closest competitor in his school trailed with 337 marks. Musyoka who assisted his grandparents with domestic work including fetching water four kilometers away, cooking and looking after livestock still found the time to focus on his books.
“I feel happy that I have passed well. I want to join Mang’u High School,” he said.
He stated that sometimes they would get security threats from camel herders but that did not deter him.
Musyoka said where one schools doesn't matter but their determination, hard work, discipline and prayer.
"At Standard Five, I opted to heed the advice of my teachers, who were always so encouraging, and thoroughly started revision work. It is then that I started scoring 400 marks and above to date," he said.
Despite lacking good textbooks, the boy remained positive that he would still top his class.
He excelled even in subjects he did not expect to perform very like English, in which he scored 83 per cent.
"I always got not more than 75 per cent in English but my God has paid off my hard work," he said. Musyoka hopes to become a computer scientist in future.
He advised all students to be very prayerful and work hard in their studies.
The boy’s grandmother, Mutwoki Musili, said she was thrilled by her grandson’s performance, saying that her efforts of bringing him up had paid off.
“He was orphaned when he was a toddler after my daughter who was unmarried died. I brought him up with my husband , mostly feeding him on cow milk and beans.
He grew up normally without any health problems and then we enrolled him to Ukasi Primary School, " the grandmother narrated.
At times when they had no money to buy cow milk, the grandmother would request her daughter-in-law to breastfeed Musyoka together with her child.
The elderly woman said her grandson had been excelling all through his primary school.
Mutwoki, who is a peasant farmer in the arid area, sometimes she would sell ballast to meet school needs of her grandson. "We are financially disadvantaged and hope John will get a scholarship to further his studies," Mutwoki said.
Other schools that performed well in the county are Precious Moment in Mwingi East where six pupils got 400 marks and above, Central Primary School where eight candidates scored 400 marks and above, Kanginga Oasis Academy that had four candidates with more than 400 marks and Mutainga Academy which had six pupils hitting above 400 marks.