Slum boy’ scales the heights in actuarial science

Benson Ongocho teaches a student in Kibera. [PHOTO: NIKKO TANUI/STANDARD]

By Nikko Tanui

In ‘normal’ circumstances, Benson Ongocho, who comes from Kibera slums, would just be another hopeless youth lost into drugs and crime.

However, Ongocho, 23, is an example of how education is key to better life. He proudly graduated with a Second Class Honours (Upper Division) in Actuarial Science from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) recently.

Tutoring others

For the actuary, who is currently doing internship at a leading insurance company, the road to success has not been easy.  This has made him resolve to give back to society whenever he can.

Ongocho, a first born in a family of four narrated he comes from a single parent household and getting school fees was a hustle.

He recalled when he was a Class Six pupil in 2001, he stayed out of school for lack of fees since at that time there was no free primary education programme. Ongocho recounted he would go to Toi Market and run errands for traders to get some money to buy food. “My younger brothers and I were almost turning into street children,” he said.

In 2002, he met a teacher at Calvary Evangelical Centre in Mashimoni area in Kibera, who encouraged him to go to the school since children were provided with breakfast, lunch and supper.

Poor facilities

 “The centre was a large hall divided by cardboards to make various classrooms. Class One to Eight was in the same hall,” Ongocho recalls.

Nonetheless, in 2003, Ongocho scored 350 marks in KCPE and was admitted to Langata High School.

“After receiving the admission letter, I was even more confused as I knew there was no way my mother, a house help, could manage to raise school fees,” he says.

Lost on what to do, he sought help from Ms Lilly Oyare, one of his former teachers, who had moved on to start a school.

“She took my results slip and helped me join Langata High school by pleading with the headmaster to let me into the school after paying Sh5,000,” he recalls.

As expected, he was often sent home for school fees but the headmaster was nevertheless impressed by his performance and one day announced he had given him one year immunity not to be sent home as long as he kept his grades up.

However, a new head teacher was sent to the school in 2005, who maintained that every student had to pay school fees regardless of the background.

Distractions

Luckily, when his class teacher Ms Oliech learned about it, she took him to the head teacher Mr Peter Orero’s and pleaded his case. Ongocho was allowed back to class.

Ongocho was a day scholar who shared a single room with the rest of his family members making it difficult to read or do his homework without being distracted by noises from neighbours’ shacks. “I had to leave school late at night so that I could make use of learning facilities and good lighting,” he says.

Planning course

In 2008, he sat for KCSE and scored a mean grade of B+. He was subsequently admitted to Maseno University for Urban and Regional Planning course.

However, through the help of one of his former high school teachers, Mrs Terresia Mutegi, he got a scholarship from USAID that enabled him join JKUAT Karen campus to study Actuarial science.

“I loved the course as it involved a lot of mathematics, one of my favourite subjects unlike Urban and Regional Planning I had been given a chance to study at Maseno,” Ongocho says.

Several youths in the slums are following in his footsteps. One of them is his younger brother, a public health student at Kenyatta University.

“Being born in the slum doesn’t mean it’s the end of life, through hard work and faith. God can open doors as long as you do not lose hope,” he says.