Going back to school has given me second chance, girl ‘married’ for 3 years says

BUNGOMA: It was jubilation for Isabella Wafula who garnered 350 marks in the recently released KCPE who sat for the examination at Namulala Academy in Bungoma County after three years of ‘marriage’.

The 16-year-old, a mother of a three-year-old boy, dropped out of school from Namawanga Primary School when she was in class six.

She enrolled back in school in 2014 and was immediately registered as a candidate without going through class six and seven coursework and still went on to post the impressive results.

Speaking during an interview at her home, the first born in a family of five, said she used to go to school on an empty stomach, lacked basic requirements such as books, uniforms and sanitary towels and this made learning a challenge.

At the tender age of 13, while at her aunt’s home in Chepkoilel, Isabella met a man who persuaded her to get into a relationship with him and later on marriage.

The man was a casual labourer who had been employed to take care of livestock at a dairy farmer’s residential home in the area.

“I was so desperate and was finding schooling especially challenging. When I met this man, he looked rich and he gave me some money, Sh200 to be exact, then he convinced me to get into a relationship with him. I easily accepted,” she says.

Without her family’s knowledge or consent, Isabella went to stay with him and they moved to Nandi Hills where they settled in one of the tea estates where the man got a job as a tea picker.

She conceived and gave birth to a baby boy on October 2013 and it was then her marital troubles begun. She suffered a lot of mistreatment at the man’s hand and it was a few months later that the idea to return home formed in her mind.

Unknown to her ‘husband’, Isabella begun weeding at the tea plantation, saving every coin she got. When she was able to raise Sh1,000 she immediately used it to pay her fare back home.

Although unsure how her family would receive her, Isabella felt it better to face her family’s possible wrath than endure anymore at the man’s hand. She, however, need not have feared for back home she was received with open arms by her mother Joan Laswa and her siblings.

She was advised that all was not lost and encouraged to resume her studies which she did. Although she went back to class six, the school went ahead to register her for the 2015 KCPE examinations.

“I would breast feed my child in the morning before I left him with my mother and then in the evening when I got back from school. The challenges I had gone through during my marriage encouraged me to work extra hard,” she says.

Teachers at the school also stepped in to assist her by providing extra tuition while group discussions helped her improve her weaker areas.

According to her former school principal, Paul Wamalwa, the decision to have Isabella sit for KCPE as soon as possible was driven by the fact that they saw potential in her.

He said she had been an inspiration to other children and would often advise them on the importance of abstaining from sex before marriage and how to conduct themselves during the adolescent stage.

Her mother is also happy to see her child score such marks after undergoing great frustrations at a tender age and being out of school for a long time. The casual laborer is, however, worried that she will not be able to assist her child move to the next level.

“I know if Isabella receives a scholarship she can make something wonderful with her life. It is my desire that she is enrolled into a good school but the only challenge is lack of finances since I do not make enough from my casual jobs to make this dream a reality for her,” she says.

Isabella now dreams of joining Lugulu Girls High School and later become a lecturer in one of the country’s leading institutions where she can spearhead access to education for girls