When Zachariah Wesonga, 15, was selected to join his dream school Maranda High School, he was elated.
This was a step closer to achieving his dream of becoming a top surgeon in Kenya and moving his parents from Bangladesh slum in Jomvu to a posh neighbourhood, he thought.
But his excitement did not last long as his mother, Pamela Akinyi, said she could not afford the required fees. She instead started making plans to take him to St Charles Lwanga, a subcounty day high school in Changawe.
Maranda High required almost Sh70,000 in fees and other stuff to be bought, including school uniform, bedding, among others.
Wesonga scored 365 marks in his KCPE exam, which he did at his neighbourhood school St Mary’s Bangladesh primary.
“I was heartbroken,” Wesonga told the Star on the phone.
Akinyi, who washes people’s clothes for a living, said she had given up hope. Her husband, a mason, could also not help much.
“I was planning to take him to St Charles Lwanga but did not know where I would get fees,” she said.
However, a visit to Shining Hope for Communities in the hope of getting help turned their fortune.
Based in Bangladesh slums, Shofco is a movement in urban slums that seeks to empower communities through advocacy platforms and education.
Here, Akinyi met the area chief who referred her to Jomvu MP Badi Twalib’s office.
Twalib enrolled Wesonga in the Jomvu NG-CDF Scholarship programme together with 19 other needy students in the constituency from public primary schools.
According to Twalib’s personal assistant Hamza Kombo, the programme, modelled after Equity Bank’s ‘Wings to Fly’, identifies beneficiaries for scholarships.
Twalib's office also bought Wesonga bedding, uniform, books and gave him fare and pocket money.
Akinyi, who spoke to the Star from Maranda High, said the MP gave them Sh70,000.
“Apart from the Sh40,000 cheque he gave us, he also gave me Sh15,000 for uniform and another Sh10,000 for fare and other small things,” an elated Akinyi said.
Wesonga has been given a full four-year scholarship. “Now my son can achieve his dream.”
Twalib said the Education ministry should come up with a system that ensures secondary school places for deserving learners are not lost because of fee challenges.
The MP said many deserving students who perform well in their KCPE exams miss out on the opportunity to join good national secondary schools because of financial challenges.
Instead, students who underperformed, but come from privileged families end up getting those chances.
“These parents wait on the wings with money ready so that once a child fails to report in the stipulated time, they take this spot, pay the whole year’s fee and have their underperforming child take the place of the performer,” the MP said.
On Saturday, he presided over the issuance of bursaries to 864 students joining secondary schools at Amani primary school in Mikindani.
The learners are now assured of joining secondary school after the NG-CDF issued them with bursaries worth Sh8.3 million.
Twalib said he came up with the idea after many parents like Wesonga’s flocked to his office seeking help to secure the places their children got in secondary schools.
The MP said 90 per cent of the parents who visited him in his office said their priority was to secure the places their children got.
He said Jomvu has bright students but their parents’ financial situation is an impediment to their education.
The MP urged parents not to make their children miss opportunities to learn in great schools because of their financial challenges.
“If the burden is too much, we as leaders are there to help,” he said.
He said apart from the Sh7 million Special Bursary for Form One students, the NG-CDF has also set aside Sh32 million for the other normal bursaries for high school, college and university students.
These, he said, will be issued from next week.
He noted that he has also secured Sh1.7 million from the presidential bursary scheme that will go a long way in helping needy students.
Twalib said President Uhuru Kenyatta has put Kenya on the global map in education following his co-chairing of the Global Education Summit in London with British Prime Minister Borris Johnson.
The UK-Kenya partnership helped raise a record USD4 billion (about Sh434 billion) from donors for the Global Partnership Education.
This will help about 175 million most vulnerable children get education across the globe.
Twalib said as Uhuru puts Kenya on the education map globally, teachers in the country must also pull up their socks to match the President's ambitions by providing quality service to the learners.
He said he will "deal with schools that laze around".
“We cannot be going out of our way to secure funds for our children to learn then you, knowing you will still get your salary at the end of the month, don’t put in the effort,” Twalib said.
He said teachers are parents too and must mould their children to be better people in society.
-Edited by SKanyara
