Acting Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i Wednesday visited Mama Ngina Girls High School in Mombasa bearing goodies. The CS treated the students to a surprise lunch worth Sh100,000.
At the school, Matiang’i also met Leonidah Kanini, 14, who had contemplated committing suicide due to lack of school fees.
Kanini, from Makueni, emerged the best pupil in Kalimakoi Primary School, scoring 373 marks in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination last year.
She had been unable to join Form One due to lack of school fees and fell into depression. She was then enrolled in a counselling program at Makindu Sub-County Hospital after she contemplated committing suicide over her parents’ inability to enroll her in secondary school.
Kanini has since had her school fees settled by well-wishers and was enrolled at Mama Ngina Girls High School in Mombasa.
A delighted and shy Kanini promised Matiang’i that she would work hard to become a surgeon.
“I am happy to be in school. I promise to work hard and become a surgeon. The teachers and students have been very supportive. I arrived on Tuesday.”
The two talked for nearly 10 minutes with Matiang’i offering advice and urging her to work hard.
“Don’t bother about school fees. Concentrate on your education. We will cater for your needs,” the CS said.
The CS later offered the students ‘lunch’ amounting to Sh100, 000.
Matiang’i also recommended that the school be moved to a new and more accommodative site away from the current one-acre location which is now congested.
He said by January 2019, the school will be relocated to Shanzu and will also accommodate day scholars.
The government has released Sh100 million for the relocation to a 10-acre land in Shimo La Tewa in Shanzu.
In the next one month, President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to lay a foundation at the new site where the new school will be built.
The CS was in the Coast region to meet the local leadership and educationists to discuss the challenge of low Form One enrollment in the region.
“As a nation we cant succeed if we don’t invest in the education of our youth,” said Matiang’i.
