TOP KCPE BOY FROM KIANDUTU (416 MARKS) FEARS WONT JOIN HIGH SCHOOL, APPEALING FOR HELP.

Brian Maina Standing outside their one-roomed house

A top performing boy in last year’s KCPE exams in Thika Town is appealing for financial help in order to join Form One. Brian Maina Njoki, 15 years old, who hails from the sprawling Kiandutu Slum 416 marks out of the possible 500 marks at Bishop Njuguna Academy to emerge tops in his class.

Maina now fears that his dream to not join secondary school may not materialise as his mother, Irene Njoki, is not able to raise school fees. In fact, so poor is the family that they cannot even raise money to take him even to a local day secondary school.

The family lives in a single room that Njoki’s mother has given them. Brian’s grandmother, Mary Wairimu, is old and blind and survives on grants from well-wishers. The house they are now living in was out of the charity of the community who donated building material and built them the shelter. It is from that shed that Shushu Wairimu gave her jobless daughter to live with her son.

Brian and his Mother Irene Njoki

Ms. Njoki works as a casual laborer, washing peoples’ clothes and at times plaiting some hair for a fee, opportunities she says are very rare to get these days. So, whenever she gets a job, she uses the money to cater for the basic needs of the family that includes the grandmother.

Brian has made it through school through handouts from people who have been assisting the family to clear their fees arrears. He was taken to Bishop Njuguna by a Good Samaritan who had seen his potential being wasted away in a local public primary school. He used to pay his fees in time until a time came when he too, experienced some financial handicap. He started straining to pay leading to the family incurring heavy debts in form of school fees.

Due to his bright nature (Brian has always been top of his class since STD 5, always attaining 400 marks), the school was always patient with the family, letting him in class even when they had not paid their fees. It is only last month when some well-wisher helped them to raise the balance to clear the outstanding fees arrears.

Now that Brian is through primary school, the family is worried that they do not have any cash to help him join secondary school. They have collected the application form for the Equity Bank’s sponsored ‘Wings To Fly’ Programme but they are not taking any chances. That is why they are appealing to persons of goodwill to come to their aid and see to it that Brian Maina see through High School and achieve his dream career.

Brian, His Mother and his Grandmother inside their single roomed- house in Kiandutu

“I would like to be an Engineer or a Banker when I finish School. Despite the challenges I have been going through, I have been always performing well in class. I dream of that day that I will help to upgrade the lives of my mother and that of my grandmother who has been helping us so much. I want to buy the land and build a big house for them,” said Brian.

He added that it was the high time people of good will come to the aid of the ghetto child saying that so many of these kids were having their dreams crush due to poverty. He noted that there is so much talent in the ghetto and it was therefore the responsibility of those in power to come to their rescue.