Poor girl hawking Sukuma Wiki to raise school fees to join her dream school

It’s three months since form one students reported to school following the release of 2017 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results.

But Addah Musungu, a 14-year-old girl from Shianda village in Butere Sub County, is still at home despite scoring 345 marks in last year’s KCPE exams.

She is now looking for well-wishers to help her start life in secondary school.

Addah went a notch higher and put an advert in social media asking for good Samaritans to come for her aid.

Part of the advert read “I wish I was in high school. I am 14 years old and scored 345 marks and up to now I have not joined school. I now help my mother to sell Sukuma wiki in Kayole but the money I get and dad’s mjengo is not enough to pay my school fees…I know you can help,”.

Addah is now hawking Sukuma wiki in Kayole slums in Nairobi City to raise Sh42, 226 to enable her join St Mary’s Girls High School – Mwea.

Speaking to the Standard on Tuesday, she said she took her exams at Esva Community School.

She avers that a good samaritan was paying her school fees but lost his job during the electioneering period, a matter that has forced her to sit at home since the parents are jobless.

“On a good day, I can collect Sh350 after hawking Sukuma wiki the whole day and make a profit of between Sh70-Sh100. I am forced to save Sh200 daily for buying new stock of Sukuma wiki the following day,” Addah said.

“Part of the money I buy food to sustain my family. My father is a casual worker (does mjengo work) and he can bring home sh250 for upkeep,” she said.

Addah said for the last two months, she has saved Sh2, 500 but it has dawned to her that the savings are not growing as at the rate she envisaged.

She is worried that she may not join her dream schools to study in a bid to be an accountant in future.

“My former classmates when they come home for half term, they asked me which school I joined. I was ashamed to inform them that I didn’t get a chance to join Form one,” she said.

As she breaks into tears, Addah said they normally brag to her of how their schools are and the new friends they encountered.

She appealed to Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Butere legislator Tindi Mwale to help her go to school.

Francis Musungu, her father, said the money he gets at the construction sites in Kayole, Industrial area and Kawangware cannot enable cater for her school fees.

“I promised my three children to give them better education if they worked hard. I have failed them for not fulfilling my promises to them, I am appealing to anyone of goodwill to come and help my daughter go to school,” Musungu said.

“My daughter normally cries at night when she sees her friends in school and during the day, if she is not hawking Sukuma wiki, she normally locks herself in her bedroom,” he said.

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