I joined a low-ranking secondary school but I excelled 

Millicent Obor performed well in her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in 2000 and was sure of being admitted to a prestigious secondary school. However, fate conspired against her and she found herself at a school whose mean score was D+. She swore never to go there and yearned to get married to escape joining the school - at the age of 14. But a change in her attitude saw her put all her efforts into her studies and she joined Maseno University to study for a degree in computer science. This was followed by a series of exchange programmes in Finland and she later finished her master’s degree in project planning and management at the University of Nairobi. She now works as a regional projects manager with an international IT firm. She shares her story with Joseph Mboya.
 
“I held my ground, there's no way I'd work so hard to get good marks in my KCPE only to go to such a 'pathetic school'. On the reporting day, my brother tied me up and loaded me on his bike then cycled to school. Ladies and gentlemen, that's how I reported to the school, tied up!

I cried a river and swore that I'd scale the walls, drop off and get married than be in that school.
For the longest time, I toyed with the marriage idea to save me from that school. The problem is that I didn't have a suitor, no man had ever looked at me romantically. I was 14.

I knew for sure that I was Lwak Girls material. For those of you who might not know it, Lwak is for many girls in the former Nyanza Province the equivalent of Alliance Girls. It was every girl’s dream to join Lwak.

I never made it to the Lwak ranks but got a calling letter to Ng’iya Girls. Not in the class of Lwak, but a good school nonetheless. I was elated but I didn’t know the grand scheme the fates were putting into place for me. First, finances were an issue and I could not, therefore, join Ng’iya.

My dad had just retired and he was sickly.

In his wisdom, my brother decided that I go live with him in Nakuru and join Menengai High School. Soon, the uniforms were bought, admission straightened out and I was all set to start my secondary school journey.

Then my world came crashing down. My father died just a day before I was to join Form One. Things started spiralling out of control after that. We had to travel to Uyoma in Siaya County for the burial.

Pain and gloom was thick in the air. You could cut across it with a knife.

Unbeknownst to me, my mother was juggling caring for her ailing husband and hustling around looking for a scholarship to enable me to continue with my education. She managed to secure me a sponsorship. She had handed in the paperwork just before my old man passed and the outcome of that was communicated to her on my dad's burial day.

She had secured the sponsorship, fully paid fees for Form One to Form Four in a boarding school.
But there was a small problem - I'd have to die first to attend that school, I hated that school!

Dying school

The sponsorship was part of the Catholic Church’s plans to revive the school. It was a dying school - literally - and I was aware of the kind of non-performance reputation the school had and I was not about to join and I swore I'd leave school if it came to that.

The school, St Sylvester’s Madiany Girls. The sponsor, Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth

Mum was insistent that I had to go to that school, that the sponsorship was a Godsend given the kind of financial constraints in the wake of my father's death.

Context of the school when I joined:

The total population - 23 (Form 1-4)

Teachers - Five (teaching all the subjects from Form 1 to Form 4)

Library: You could count the total number of books you'd find on the shelves

No lab

No electricity/no generator

Dormitories: One 

Best student: D (for the last two years before I joined)

Gosh, I was so frustrated!

Then one day, just before we sat for our Term One Form One exams, I made a mental paradigm shift, I said I'd make that school my Alliance High. I affirmed that I had the potential to perform even if I was not in Lwak or Alliance. I had to be my own competitor. I had to set the pace for myself because only I was my dream bearer. And I had big dreams for myself!

I began borrowing books to read, took all my brother’s books from Usenge High and made them mine. I read all the subjects that we still didn't have a teacher for, on my own.

I read all the Topmark books, cover to cover.

I buried myself in books, I wanted to prove to myself that I could still make it outside of Lwak and outside of Alliance.

Then we started getting Board of Governors teachers. Then new teachers like Charles Gumba, Mr Omollo, Mr Ralph, Mr Mwangi, Mr Adipo were hired under the leadership of Sister Celestine and Sister Agatha, teachers with a hunger to help transform the school's image, teachers with a hunger to help hungry students like myself.

We formed a group of five academically hungry students, students who had also been offered sponsorship like me, against their wishes.

We took to tutoring ourselves. I handled maths and physics, Rosemarie Rhoda - currently a medical doctor in Germany - handled biology and chemistry while Leah handled English. We disturbed the few teachers we had with questions and questions. We gave them the morale to put their best foot forward. We formed a bond, a bond of five hungry students and five hungry teachers. We were on fire, I was on fire!

The first inter-school exams came. This was in Form Three term one. I had been topping our exams with very good grades. The inter-school exams included Lwak, Maranda and Chianda, the Siaya giants back then. I emerged number three, overall!

I was beaten by one Lwak girl and one Maranda boy. I topped in maths and physics!

I was disappointed in myself, the plan was to be the best not a runner-up.

Excellent performance 

But my name was already on people's lips. I had put our, otherwise, unknown school on the maps and there was no stopping me.

We did several other inter-school exams and the top three was my default position, then school heads, the likes of Osiemo (Maranda), Opanga, etc began asking, "Who is this Obor, beating our boys from unknown Madiany Girls"?

Then they arranged - five school heads - to come and see me in our unknown school and they brought gifts, etc.

Then they asked me, "What motivates you, how do you do it"? I told them I compete against myself.

I went straight to get a JAB admission to pursue computer science at Maseno University, where I would also top my class and get an internship sponsorship at the University of Eastern Finland under their ICT4D inter-universities exchange programme.

I have since finished my master’s in project planning and management at the University of Nairobi and I am now working as the regional projects manager for an international IT firm - Africa118 - overseeing, among other projects, the Post-Covid Economic Recovery Regional Program - The digital Launchpad Project. 

My story is long but in a nutshell, my name is on the Rolls of Honor board at St Sylvester’s Madiany Girls. 

My parting shot to students who might have been called to schools they think lowly about: Paradigm and attitude shift are key, take the opportunity and run with it. Aim at the bigger picture and have laser focus determination to pursue your dreams, because only you are your dreams bearer!