Agony of a poor child

No one decides which family to be born in, whether rich or poor. Unfortunately, many are born in humble background, where families survive on God's mercy and grace. On the good side of it some geniuses bud from these families. Even data in KCPE and KCSE can attest to this. Behind their brilliant results lies the untold story of suffering and abject poverty.

For the lucky ones, well-wishers come in handy providing for them everything, for the unlucky ones, they maneuver through hardship, staying less time in school because they have been sent home to look for school fees. Sometimes they go hungry because their poor parents can't afford food. Some may resort to feast on sugarcanes or seek labor just to make both ends meet.

In some communities nobody cares for them, whether you have been brought to school in your parents' posh car or on bicycle. At the end the whole village expects you to perform. When KCPE and KCSE exams are out, you will be told to reveal to them how you have performed. Nobody has time to get the different family background of this candidate or students.

When you join college or campus, it then dawns to your doubting Thomas’s that you had potential and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Fortunately for those who get government sponsorship they relieve their parents. Those who do not get government sponsorship, they are forced to hold their hopes and dreams sealed indefinitely unless a well-wisher surfaces.

Upon joining an institution of higher learning, the poor child has ambitions to achieve. Helping his family from the burdens of abject poverty; and to be a role model and help others who have walked through the same path.  However, as the day goes by, the poor child cannot help himself to live in a society where people are living in two different worlds.