Relocating from his home to live near Mioro Mixed Secondary School was the beginning of Josphat Mwangi's steps to a brighter future.
Mwangi was the most improved candidate in the KCSE exam results released by Education CS Amina Mohamed on Friday.
Though he scored 278 marks in KCPE, he attained an A- (minus) of 79.4 points in KCSE at the little-known school in Mathioya constituency.
The lad says moving closer to school gave him a chance to extend his study hours to past 9pm.
He said it saved the time he spent in walking to school, which is several kilometres away from his village.
His father Kamau Maina said they were granted the boy's accommodation by a family friend after the school barred them from renting a room for Mwangi.
"I am very happy with my performance. My ambition is to be a lawyer so as to fight for the rights of the less fortunate," he told the Star.
His performance has put the Day school located on the slopes of the Aberdare ranges in the limelight.
The school’s principal David Mbugua hailed the student as a top performer who was humble and hardworking.
Mbugua said Mwangi led his class since form one and that the least grade the student attained was a B+.
He rose the ranks to become one of the senior school captains.
"Mwangi was the captain in charge of the laboratory and had no cases of indiscipline. He was also very humble despite outperforming all his classmates," he said.
The principal, who is a co-author of Uchambuzi wa Kigogo - a Kiswahili setbook, said the school had a mean of 4.102 last year.
"We topped all Day schools in Mathioya, Murang’a county. We also emerged fifth among all public schools in the subcounty," the ecstatic teacher said.