Jubilation as a bright KCPE pupil joins Form One after Nation coverage
Eric Mumo Sila wrote his 2022 KCPE exams at Kitengela Air view education centre under a scholarship.
A Kitengela boy who had failed to join Form One in spite of his top marks of 417 was admitted to Oloolaiser High School in Ngong today after his plight was highlighted by Nation.Africa on Saturday and well-wishers lent a helping hand.
Eric Mumo Sila, 14, from Norkopir village, had opted to hawk mangoes, and teach his two siblings in the evenings, after he failed to join the school where he had been admitted, for lack of fees.
After the story ran, calls came in, both local and international, from people offering to help pay the boy’s school fees.
The boy's father, Mr John Sila, 40, told Nation that his phone has been buzzing with calls and texts from well-wishers and the family’s home was a beehive of activity over the weekend.
Most well-wishers have been channelling their support directly to the school account, and the money has exceeded the four years’ accumulative school fees, according to the school records. Some well-wishers are willing to sponsor the boy up to the university level.
Also Read: Help us join Form One, learners plead
"I have never received so many calls in my life. The support has been overwhelming. I have no words to express my joy to those who have stepped in to see my first-born son join high school," Mr Sila told the Nation.
Mumo and his parents were picked from their home this morning to go to school. A well-wisher from Thika paid the whole year’s school fees, after paying for uniforms and other necessities.
Standing tall in his full school uniform, the grateful Mumo promised not to let down his benefactors.
"I can only say thank you to the well-wishers. I will not let you down," he said, is eyes welling up in tears of joy.
His mother, Ms Nthenya Sila, said the family has been touched by the generosity of Kenyans.
"We were helpless, but we have seen the hand of God. Well-wishers have come through for us when we had lost hope," she told the Nation.
When the Nation visited the family at its semi-permanent home on Friday afternoon, Mumo was sitting on a water jerry can outside the house, reading a Standard Eight science textbook. The mangoes sourced from Ukambani that he was to sell had run out.
The family of five lives in a single room, courtesy of a well-wisher who decided to house them after learning of their predicament. The room partitioned with a curtain has no electricity; a small solar panel dimly lights the house. The heat in the house under the scorching sun during the day is unbearable. A few utensils are heaped in one corner. A packet of maize flour visible from a distance was only enough for some porridge.
“Despite the hardship at our home, I worked very hard to post good grades. I have always wished to join Mang'u High School. I aspire to be a pilot but seemingly my star is fading away,” Mumo had said then.
Mr Sila said he was unable to provide for his family because he and his wife are grappling with a medical condition. The family depends on well-wishers for food and other basic needs.
