A disabled student who sat his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) last year and scored grade B + (plus) of 72 points is yet to get university admission.
Collins Mwangi who was named among the top 10 most improved students living with disability by Education Cabinet Secretary (CS), Prof. George Magoha while releasing the results last year is yet to come to terms with the fact that his dreams of pursuing medicine at the university may never come true.
Speaking at his parents’ home in Ichuga village at the outskirts of Nanyuki town on Sunday, Mwangi said that he was distraught as his dream of joining university was diminishing by the day.
“I feel heartbroken after I received news that I have missed out on all the courses I had applied for at the university despite attaining all the minimum requirements to study them,” he said.
He adds that he had chosen to study medicine at Egerton University, University of Nairobi (UoN) and Kenyatta University, Quantity survey and pharmacy at UoN but none of the institutions of higher learning have placed him.
The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) early this month opened its student portal for second revision to enable the 2019 KCSE candidates who did not secure their preferred courses to revise their choices.
However, Mwangi says despite the opening of the portal he has not been able to secure any of the courses of his choice leaving him desperate.
“I am so disappointed, despite the hard work I put in school to attain the good grades and bearing in mind my medical condition,” a tearful Mwangi told KNA at his home.
Mwangi was diagnosed with a medical condition in 2014 that makes his lungs malfunction and he has to rely on a ventilator always to help him breathe normally.
His mother Ms. Edna Kiama says the lung failure came a few years later after he had undergone a surgical operation to straighten his spinal cord that was curved since birth, a procedure saw him stay away from school while in class six for eight months as he recuperated.
The mother who operates a business in Nanyuki said the family had to strain to afford the oxygen ventilator that cost them Sh. 800,000.
After Mwangi sat his Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (KCPE) in 2015, he scored an impressive 407 marks and was admitted at Utawala Academy in Gilgil but unfortunately, he could not be admitted to the school due to his medical condition that saw him have difficulty in breathing.
“His doctors had warned against enrolling the boy in a boarding school since he needed to have an oxygen ventilator all the time and conditions in many institutions might not be favourabe for such a student” added the mother of two boys.
The mother was now left to find a day secondary school where his son could be enrolled for his secondary education and also for ease of monitoring his health condition.
“Luckily for us the Principal Nanyuki High School agreed to admit my son as a day scholar despite the school being a boarding institution,” she further said.
The institution also agreed to fix electric power sockets on the wall next to Mwangi’s desk so that he could plugin his oxygen ventilator while he was in class.
“I want to become a doctor and inspire other children who are undergoing health challenges and let them know they can excel academically despite their setbacks,” Mwangi said.
Ms. Kiama says that the family has been left with no options and is now appealing to the ministry of education to come to the aid of her firstborn son whom she says is slowly sliding into depression for failure to join university despite his impressive results.
“Our humble background cannot allow us to enroll him as a parallel student or in private universities that’s why we’re appealing for assistance to enable him pursue his course of choice and realize his dreams,” Ms. Kiama said.
By Martin Munyi
