Mother of four stirs village by scoring C in KCSE

40-year-old Hellen Ngeso during the interview with The Standard.(Photo:Isaiah Gwengi)

A mother of four has become the talk of her village in Siaya County since the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams results were released. Forty-year-old Hellen Ngeso overcame several odds to score a C plain.

Mrs Ngeso, a mother of four, dropped out of school in Form Three due to lack of school fees, and nine years later, she enrolled back to school to pursue her dreams.

"Back then, other than dropping out of school due to lack of school fees, I also got pregnant and married the father of my child when I was 20 years old. I was naive in the ways of life," she says.

After staying together for 13 years, Ngeso's husband, who is a teacher, married a second wife and enrolled her in college.

"I couldn't understand why my husband married a second wife yet we had no family problems. When he took the woman to college, I thought maybe he wanted a learned woman," she says.

This reignited her desire to go back to school. In 2005, she sought admission at a secondary school in Mageta island but was turned back after her husband declined to write her a letter allowing her to go back to school.

This did not dampen her dream of pursuing an education. She finally got admission at Mitiro Secondary School in Form Two several years later. She sat for her exams at Makasembo Secondary School.

But how did she juggle family duties with her studies?

"It was not easy since I was in a school which was far away from my husband and children. I only saw my family during the holidays. But my husband was very supportive," she explains.

Ngeso is now pursuing a Diploma course in Social Work and Community Development at African Institute of Research and Development Studies in Kisumu.

The mother whose first born daughter is set to join university, hopes to also pursue a degree programme in future.