By Joshua Cheloti

A bright but needy boy from Machakos County whose dream of joining secondary school was hanging in balance can now have a reason to smile.

This is after Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti came to his rescue.

The plight of the boy was highlighted on social media, and the county boss offered to meet him.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, the governor said he had offered to pay school fees for the boy.

“I was touched by a story I came across on social media of a young boy, whose dream of pursuing secondary education had faded away due to lack of school fees and other requirements,” Ndeti said in one of the tweets.

“I found time and invited him to my office where we had a chat and I offered him full sponsorship through his high school education,” she added.

The boy scored 348 marks in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination.

He secured admission to Kisasi Boys High School but he was almost giving up on joining form one before the county boss came to his rescue.

Aside from the needy boy, Governor Ndeti said he had also offered similar help to several other cases that were brought to his office with genuine cases of lack of school fees.

She also assured that her administration will continue allocating more resources that will ensure no bright students from poor backgrounds miss the opportunity to study and pursue their life dreams.

Schools have been admitting form one students and those joining Junior Secondary Since since earlier this month.

There have however been concerns over a high number of students that were yet to report to their respective schools.

Data from the Ministry of Education released mid-February indicated that close to 400,000 students (both form one and Grade 7) were yet to report to school.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu however said a multi-agency team, which includes officers from the Interior Ministry, had already launched a mop-up operation to ensure the students join their respective schools.