University girl explores brick making to pay her fees

A university student from Elgeyo Marakwet County is going against the grain to raise school fees.

Brenda Kilimo Chesir dropped out of her first year academic programme after she failed to raise fees in time to be allowed to write her end of semester examinations.

“It was so painful and discouraging to see my classmates collecting their examination cards. My pleas to the accounts office to allow me write the examination and pay the fees later fell on deaf ears,” she says.

A Bachelors of Arts (English Literature) student at Kisii University, Eldoret campus, Ms Chesir’s only option was to return to her Chesongoch village in Marakwet East to ponder her next move.

“I thought of engaging in crop-farming to raise fees but abandoned the idea due to the unforgiving vagaries of weather in Kerio Valley. At one point, I contemplated brewing chang’aa and busaa but my few attempts were futile,” she said.

Another community

It is then that she saw an opportunity in brick-making, an idea for which she has had to brave cajolement to actualise.

“There was a particular day when villagers came to my home and found me mixing mud for brick-making. One asked me if I was a local from Marakwet or from another community associated with brick-making. I reminded them I was a typical Marakwet, born and bred in their midst,” she giggles as she narrates her story to Saturday Standard.

With no basic knowledge on how to make bricks, a neighbour motivated her into the enterprise a year ago.

“I initially had some casuals helping me, but whenever I stepped out, they would lie about the number of bricks they had made on a day.

“With the help of a relative, I decided to devote my time to brick making,” she says.

On a good day, Ms Chesir makes over 700 bricks; “This venture motivates me that hard work pays and I have learned that God rewards those who sweat to eat. Each brick retails at Sh10,” she says.

But it has not been an easy job for her as she has to use her extra time seeking a market for the bricks. She sells them to locals and in nearby urban centres.

“This work requires sacrifice and many a time we are too tired for other obligations at home,” she says.

Her relative Peter Cherop speaks well of her: “The thought of venturing into brick-making was solely her decision and with my basic knowledge in carpentry, I made two wooden brick holders to ferry the wet mud.”

He says Chesir has saved enough money to see her through the first two years in university and she will go back and finish her studies.

“She broke the cultural barrier,” he says.