A street boy who sat for this year’s KCPE as a private candidate and scored 336 marks is appealing for support to join Form One.
Andrew Owili did the exam together with six fellow street boys at Kakamega Primary School centre. He scored 57 marks in English, 67 in Kiswahili, 72 in Math, 67 in Science and 73 in Social Studies and Religion.
The other candidates were Elvis Makokha who scored 208, Boniface Nyamandulu (158), Wilson Mbanga (108), Rajab Kasim (106) and Chrispine Michael (147).
Owili and colleagues were attended classes at the Salvation Army church.
Owili declined to speak to the media and only asked their chairman of street families, Athman Bantu, who brought him to journalists to speak on his behalf.
Bantu said Owili came to the streets last year because of problems he was going through at home where he lived with his grandmother.
“He refused to reveal his home because he said he does not want his family to know where he is,” Bantu said.
“He said he found himself with his grandmother who told him that he had a mother who died when he was very young and he had never seen his father. We are appealing to well-wishers to support him complete his education so he can live his life like any other Kenyan,” he said.
Bantu, a former street boy who is now a mechanic in Kakamega town, said that he assisted Owili to get a job at a kiosk in the town when he showed signs of reforming.
He worked during weekends and attended classes on week days.
A former street boy and a student at Masinde Muliro University, Nathaniel Odongo, convinced other street boys to go to class.
“Being a former street boy, I am used to interacting with them whenever I am in town and support them with some food and even clothing. When I asked them who was willing to go back home or school, the seven accepted to go to class but declined to go home and I took them to the Salvation Army,” Odongo said.
At the church, the street children are provided with meals but they have to find where to sleep.
