By Isaiah Lucheli

He was displaced from his home in Rift Valley Province during the post-election chaos, but that did not stop him from topping a national information technology examination.

It kept him away from classes at the Eldoret’s Splendid College for three months. It was with trepidation that he sat the Certified Information Communication Technology examination last December.

Mr Simon Ngethe Ngugi displays the congratulatory letter from the Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examinations Board. [PHOTO: PETER OCHIENG/STANDARD]

But he need not have worried for when the results were released in April, he was the best candidate in the examination administered Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examinations Board (Kasneb). "I expected to do well but was shocked that I was the best candidate," Ngugi says.

At the height of the violence he fled to a camp at the Eldoret Show ground.

"My guardian asked me to relocate with his family from Eldoret but I wanted to complete my studies," he says.

For months he was mainly concerned with feeding him and finding a safe place to sleep at night, but he never gave up hope. "My guardian had paid my college fees and I was optimistic things would cool down and I would continue with my studies," he says.

Course work

When the security improved, Ngugi returned to school to find he was behind in the course work.

He loves computers and spent much of his free time helping classmates learn to repair computers and browse the Internet.

March 18 is the best day in his life. That is when he received a congratulatory letter from Kasneb with the excellent results.

"I wish to inform you that you were ranked the best candidate among those who took and passed the CICT Foundation Level Modules 1 & 2 (Combined) examination in the December," the letter signed by P M Nduati, secretary and chief executive of Kasneb reads in part.

The Director of Splendid, Leonard Kinyulusi, says Ngugi is a hard worker. Students and teachers at the college are proud of and inspired by him. The motto of the three-year-old college is: Equipping you for the best.

Kasneb examinations are offered in private and public colleges in East Africa.