KISII, Kenya, Jan 20 — Coming from a humble background and learning in an extra county school did not stand in Kevin Ontinta’s ambition to bag the top grade in KCSE.
Ontinta was among 1,146 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) who scored an A plain. The student once enrolled in university scoring 82 points at Igonga Secondary School in Bonchari, Kisii County, where he sat for the exam in 2022.
Despite the challenges of anyone coming from a humble and struggling family, Ontinta who is the first born in a family of eight first sat for his KCSE in 2016 and scored a B minus.
Like any other students, he was excited to join Kenyatta university where he was pursuing Bachelors of Education taking Kiswahili and Christian Religious Education.
After a year, life became difficult in campus and he resorted to do menials jobs in construction sites to keep himself in school while taking care of his siblings back at home when he had no classes.
“Besides Mjengo I used to work as a Watchman at night at least to have some cash and send back home for my siblings, because my family is really poor,” Ontinta recalled in an interview on Friday following the release of KCSE results.
As the situation became unbearable, he was forced to drop out of campus and focused on feeding his family back in the village. It is in the course of his routine jobs at construction site that he met a Catholic priest Father Jeremiah Nyakundi who extended a helping hand.
Ontinta made a choice of going back to secondary school with an ambition to get an A plain this time so that he could pursue his dream course: medicine.
In 2018, Ontinta secured a sponsorship by the priest and went back to the extra county school to start afresh.
“I had a dream of scoring an A plain. I focused on my studies and at this point the priest gave my parents some small money to start a business as I concentrate with my studies. My dad right now hawks boiled eggs at Suneka town at least to take care of my other seven siblings,” Ontinta said.
The priest became his guardian monitored his academic performance, offered him guidance and counselling through his journey at the extra-county school.
“We had a very cooperative class and teachers who sacrificed to ensure we finished the syllabus in time and focused on revision,” Ontinta said.
“Am dedicating this results to my Catholic priest Father Nyakundi, my family, the church and my teachers,we started small with a big dream,” he said.
Ontinta is now hoping to get a scholarship to help him pursue his dream course of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Nairobi.
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