28/05/2024
Chronicles of Wath Ong'er Mixed Day and Boarding Secondary School
Attending a school like Wath Ong'er Mixed Day and Boarding Secondary School in Nyatike sub-county offers an educational experience unlike any other.
In our Form 2 Yellow class, students gain skills that prepare them to thrive anywhere in the world.
Despite our dislike for many of the teachers, Madam Antonette, who teaches History and Kiswahili, is an exception.
We appreciate her because Kiswahili is a compulsory subject, ensuring she'll be our teacher until Form Four, other teachers are thorns.
Ogaja Ogaja (also known as Shawn Paul), Michael Lumba (nicknamed Osama), and I have formed a strong friendship.
Our bond strengthened last term when we all underwent the same admission interview for Form Two.
Shawn Paul transferred from a school in Nairobi, where students had lots of freedom, he gradually grew horns which his strict stepfather, a mechanic, could not tolerate.
Fearing for her marriage, Shawn Paul's mother made the difficult decision to send him back to the village to live with his grandmother.
During our admission interview, Shawn Paul scored 211 out of the possible 600 marks in the six subjects. I followed closely with 189, while poor Osama, may the gods have mercy on him, scored a mere 123.
Feeling betrayed by the interference in his family affairs, Shawn Paul vowed to make life difficult for his stepfather. Reluctantly, he accepted the transfer to the village school.
It seemed Shawn Paul's previous school was a lawless place where students came and went as they pleased.
“Jamaa ile shule ilikuwa moooootttttoooo wa kuotea mbali, ilikuwa second floor, first floor ilikuwa gym, ground floor supaa. Alafu hapo juu, ilikuwa ni base ya teyi,” he would reminisce anytime we made stories of our former schools.
Wath Ong'er Mixed Day and Boarding Secondary School in Nyatike sub-county is known for its inclusive admissions policy, accepting students regardless of their academic performance. Consequently, despite scoring low marks, we were admitted and assigned to Form 2 Yellow.
Osama, on the other hand, transferred from Tok Kobonyo Secondary School, located along the border of Kenya and Tanzania.
Unfortunately, this school faced numerous challenges as it seemed to have been forsaken by the government. From jiggers to bedbugs and various other issues, there was little to commend about the conditions at Tok Kobonyo Secondary School.
For Osama, interacting with someone from Nairobi was a completely new experience. He had never before seen or spoken to anyone from the city. This novelty gave Shawn Paul the perfect opportunity to embellish his tales, such as stories of motorcycles that magically transform into cars and robots simultaneously.
Shawn Paul even claimed that some Nairobians use remote-like gadgets to control these robots, sending them to the market and back.
For Osama, attending Wath Ong'er Mixed Day and Boarding Secondary School in Nyatike sub-county was a significant achievement.
Tok Kobonyo Secondary School had a total of 65 students spread across all forms. Since its establishment 15 years ago, the highest-achieving student from this institution attained a D plain grade in 2016.
After high school, he pursued a career in plumbing and now owns three motorcycles operating on the Bondo Nyironge-Maembe Saba route. He's doing well and occasionally visits the school to motivate students, especially as exams approach.
As for me, I transferred from Ludhe Dongo Secondary School after a physical altercation with a prefect. The trouble started when the prefect attacked me first, and in self-defense, I used a pseudo karate kick that left him nursing dental injuries. Despite the circumstances, the principal chose to expel me, while the prefect was admitted for three days.......................................
