A Form 1 student reporting to school on Monday, August 2, shocked his classmates and many prying eyes after he reported to school clad in oversized, faded shoes.
The shoes – as he would later say – were part of the humble inheritance from his late father.
John* not his real name – stood out on the line like a sour thumb.
He obviously looked the odd one out – but what some of his future classmates and their polished parents did not know is the fact that he was coming to this school with the highest marks in the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.P.E) exams results.
The transition was not easy
John was born in Nairobi – and only relocated to a village school three and a half years ago.
The transition was not easy having spent most of his time in Nairobi where he would be chauffeured to school and back.
In the village – he had to walk for 4 kilometers daily to and from school – dodging thorns, wild dogs, rocks, stumps and the scorching sun.
His dad had a good job a car and money – but things changed when death paid his family a visit – taking away his father, mother and all his three siblings in a grisly road accident.
That’s why he didn’t travel
“My parents, my two sisters and brother were in car traveling to visit a family friend outside town when their car had a Tyre burst. All of them perished,” John’s relative told this writer.
On that fateful day, young John had examinations to prepare for – and that’s how he survived because he didn’t travel with the family.
In the village, life was tough, grueling – but it was a good learning curve.
John had to live with his grandmother – in her small house which she shared with her chicken and three goats.
“I want to change my grandmother’s life. I have come to appreciate life more having spent time in the village with her and other extended family members,” he says when asked about what inspires him to work hard.
“See, everyone else is here with their parents, or guardians, I am probably the only one who brought a 75-year-old, who cannot even speak English to this admission exercise. I love her so much, and I will reciprocate one day,” says John.
Both sides of life
John says he does not seek sympathy, but encouragement – as he has shared the both sides of life having lived in Nairobi and in the village.
“I want to change my village… I want to inspire lives..” he says before his name is called at a tent.
He rushes to carry his fulls-cap sized mattress, but a voice asks him to leave it on the side of the tent.
You can tell from it’s slender size that it has counted days – and John is definitely not its first beneficiary.
“I got it from a former Form 4 student who sat his K.C.S.E in 2020. Actually, he is set to join the university, and so will I,” he says with a smile.
My father’s shoes
The shoes he wore had gone for four years without tasting polish – they belonged to his father.
When he inherited them… his feet were several inches short… he had to grow to fit into them.
John would later joke saying: ‘These shoes have not seen polish since the Kenya Defense Forces officers invaded Somalia.”
It was easy to pick the shoes in a sea of deep black waiting to be admitted at the school.
“I washed them two days before coming here… I had to because I often used them at home – grazing and wading through thorny shrubs and floods.
The shoe laces originally belonged to a pair of rubber shoes which had given way to vagaries of time.
“You know, shoe laces can last for decades because you don’t walk on the them, the sole does the job of thumping the ground,” he says.
Impeccable English
As a journalist – and a storyteller – I can tell that John is headed for great things. His English is impeccable for a lad who has just completed Standard Eight – and he can fiddle with vocabulary just fine.
I ask him if he would love to become a journalist in the future…
“I leave it all to God. He knows tomorrow…I don’t know about tomorrow.
“If told told me four years ago that I would one day join Form 1 without proper shoes, mattress and sweater, I wouldn’t have believed you a thousand times,” he says.
I threw one look at his sweater. I had not noticed it.
It was short-sleeved pullover that had been cut at the upper sleeve junction to remove the entire sleeve.
You could tell that the tailor had tried his best to conceal the hanging threads at the sleeve joints – but he had done a terrible job.
Its maroon color had faded over time – a good sign that this too was inherited, probably from a former student.
laughing at my shoes
I could see a group of students pointing a his white shoes, sorry, former black shoes and muzzling a laugh.
“They are laughing at my shoes,” he told this writer after finishing his admission.
John was admitted into the school – and you could see his broad smile when his grandmother gave him a Ksh200 note.
“That’s your pocket money son,” she said as she tied back the edge of her lesso.
“I will have a different story once I am done with school… and you will tell it to the whole world,” John said as he bid us goodbye.