Mercy Wanjiru, 40, who scored 379 marks in 2010 KCPE at Kangurwe Primary School in Mukurwe-ini, together with other pupils, moments after she was given her results. Photo/JOSEPH KANYI
She used to sell clothes door-to-door to fend for her children.
It’s hawking clothes to smartly-dressed women that contributed to her realisation that she wanted to dress smartly too, but she figured that lack of an education stood between her and her heart’s desire.
That’s when she decided she would go back to school. Now the 40-year-old mother of three is headed to the hallowed hallways of one of Kenya’s premier high schools — as a student.
Mercy Wanjiru scored 379 marks out of the possible 500 in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education.
She has been admitted to Kenya High in Nairobi, even though she had set her sights on Alliance Girls High School in Kikuyu.
Excitement has gripped her former school, Kangurwe Primary School in Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri, where she sat for her examination after she joined Standard Seven in 2008.
The former second-hand clothes hawker has now become a heroine in the district. She says she was motivated to go back to school by the classy women she found in offices in Kajiado as she hawked clothes.
Women working in those offices carried themselves with a relaxed mien incomparable to her lifestyle. “My job was tiresome, walking long distances under the burning sun carrying a large bag of clothes on my back.
“At the offices where most of my clients worked, I felt small, and that’s when I thought of going back to school,” says Ms Wanjiru. The introduction of free education by the government in 2003, she says, was a boon as she would not pay school fees.
As she waits to enrol in Form One, her eldest son will also be sweating it out at Egerton University where he is a third-year Bachelor of Commerce student.
When she made up her mind, she gave up her business in Kajiado and went back to her parents’ home in Kangurwe Village in Mukurwe-ini and told her mother about her resolution.
“Although she was surprised, she respected my decision but asked me to think of a way of raising money to continue paying for the education of my children,” the single mother recalls.
In 1986, Ms Wanjiru sat for KCPE and scored 426 out of the then possible 700 marks. She was admitted to Chinga Girls in Othaya and attended classes for two terms but dropped out for lack of school fees. She headed to Kajiado.
When she gave up hawking to go to school, she held harambees and sold maize in a leased land in Mukurwe-ini to make sure her two children continued schooling.
“I value education very much and this is why I will not let my children drop out of school due to lack of school fees,” she declared.
Ms Wanjiru thinks she could have done better in KCPE were she not distracted by the harambee for her son while in her second term, Standard Eight.
Before she was selected to join Kenya High, she went to Alliance Girls principal to plead her case. Principal Dorothy Kamwilu asked her to bring a letter from Mukurwe-ini District Education Officer attesting to her character at school.
As she went about getting the letter, she received news that she has been admitted to Kenya High. Says she: “This is a good school just like Alliance Girls. I’m equally excited to join Kenya High.”
Her head teacher, Joseph Kiahura of Kangurwe Primary School, describes Ms Wanjiru as a “pupil” who could have done better were it not for the distractions while in school.
Ms Wanjiru came second after Edward Marathi Kariuki who topped with 386 marks. The Mukurwe-ini bursary scheme under the CDF will pay for her high school education. Ms Wanjiru aspires to be a doctor.
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