Shock as girl with no disability is selected to join secondary school for the blind

A pupil, Purity Jerotich, living with no disability has been selected to join a school for the blind. [Photo: Stephen Rutto]

A girl with no disability has been selected to join a secondary school for the visually impaired.

Purity Jerotich, 14, who sat the last Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations is not visually impaired but has been selected to join St Lucy’s High School for the Visually Impaired.

Jerotich, a former pupil at Kerio Valley Oasis Academy Marakwet East, said she got confused on learning she had been selected to join the mixed boarding secondary school for the blind in Meru County.

Kerio Valley Oasis Academy is among schools that defied insecurity to post impressive results in this year’s KCPE examinations.

“I did not select the school. It was a rude shock for me when I sent an SMS only to learnt I had been selected to join the school. I have no disability and I don’t understand why I am being placed in a special school,” a distraught Jerotich told The Standard yesterday.

Jerotich, who scored 361 marks, said she expected to join either Pangani Girls in Nairobi or Limuru Girls in Kiambu.

Her uncle Boaz Kilimo, who is also her guardian, said the news shocked them.

Mr Kilimo said they expected her to join an extra-county school based on the marks she attained.

"She is from a poor background. I have supported her since she started school and I expected her to be selected to a school she chose,” Kilimo said and called on the Government to intervene.