A girl living with disability is unable to join secondary school despite scoring 367 marks in last year’s KCPE exams and gaining admission to Mikinduri Girls High School in Meru County.
Glory Mukiri, who attended Muriri Vision Academy in Tigania East Sub County, said her dream is to become a doctor “so that I can help my family and community.”
Mukiri, from Lailuba village in the semi-arid Nyambene region, said she found it difficult to walk because she had one leg, and had to do with a prosthetic one.
Her mother, Kaari Mururu, said Mukiri had surmounted great odds stuck against her to post good marks in the KCPE, but she was unable to raise money to enable her join the school, which has enjoyed good performances in the KCSE.
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To sustain the family Mukiri and her other four children, Mururu sells samosas, vegetables and other items at Lailuba, a dry locality near the Muriri-Isiolo Road.
With the inability to raise fees for their daughter, the management of her former school undertook to ensure she was not sent home for fees but rather stayed in school to continue her studies with the others.
Mr Ben Thuranira, the director of the Academy, said Mukiri understood her limitations, but was social and played a little with her friends at school.
“She was a little be reserved owing to her condition but we took her through counseling and she interacted very well with her colleagues, despite her challenges. If assisted to report to school I am sure she will do very well, because she was always eager to learn,” Mr Thuranira told The Standard on Saturday.
Being from a poverty-stricken, semi-arid region, Ms Mururu said her daughter was distraught due to the long delay in reporting to school.
“She did very well in the examination. She had no leg but we got a prosthetic one which makes it difficult to walk for long,” said Mururu.
In Nyeri County Off the Nyeri- Nyahururu Highway Labura Village, Kieni Constituency Mary Sharon Wairimu,16, is lost in doubt and despair at her future.
Wairimu scored 380 marks at Labura Primary School but she is yet to report to high school.
Her dreams of going to Kathiaini Girls High School in Machakos seem all but lost after her mother Veronica Muringe was unable to raise the school fees to take her to school.
“I am falling behind in my studies, other girls went to school weeks ago and I am still at home and mum doesn’t have the money, how will I ever catch up with my classmates?” she said.
