By Betty Luke
May 10, 2021 will remain memorable for a 32-year-old woman who despite dropping out of school over 10 years ago, posted impressive grades in her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.
Purity Nkatha Mwirigi, was mistreated by a step father who later threw her out of their Buuri home in Meru County forcing her to drop out of school while in Form Two at Kisima Secondary School.
Her mother who remained at the home in Timau was later thrown out with the other children and the husband would later sell their small parcel of land. Her mother developed health complications thereafter.
Ms Mwirigi had to look for casual jobs to support the family that entirely depended on her, and in the process meet a friend who promised her a job in Mombasa.
“Few days after travelling to Mombasa, I realized she wanted me to work in the streets so I refused and she threw me out,” she said during a recent interview in Isiolo town.
She would later be taken in by another friend, who rented her a room and got her a job at a local shop within Malindi town.
All this while, Ms Mwirigi had the urge to go back to school but still faced financial constraints considering that she was also taking care of her ailing mother and siblings.
In 2013, seven years after dropping out of school, Ms Mwirigi got married to a Secondary School teacher but her hope of going back to school remained alive.
“I was hopeful that one day I would get a chance to complete school and at least give back to the community,” she told thepresspoint.com.
Seven years later, the determined mother came across a post online of a woman who was empowering women and approached her for assistance to go back to school and the lady, we would later know agitates for women and girls rights, obliged.
“Irene Kendi offered to pay my school fees and my husband catered for my shopping,” Ms Mwirigi said.
Luckily, she was offered a Form Three admission at Magumoni Girls Secondary in Tharaka Nithi County.
While she thought the tribulations had ended, she fell sick six months to March’s KCSE 2020 exams and was admitted at different hospitals without proper diagnosis of her complications.
Her last hospital to be admitted was in Nairobi where on February 5, 2021, she was diagnosed with auto-immune disorder, a condition that adversely affected her memory and concentration.
“The condition affected me so much that I could not remember what I had learnt and was forced to re-read again and cover the syllabus which was completed while I was in hospital,” she said, adding that amid the odds, she remained determined to perform well in the examination.
When Education CS Prof George Magoha announced the KCSE results two weeks ago, Ms Mwirigi was among the students who shone despite going through a lot of hurdles and attained B (Minus) of 56 points.
Her initial desire was to acquire education so that she could better her life but now wants to give back to society by empowering girls and women who are victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV).
“I am a product of someone’s kindness and I also have to give back to the same society that assisted me,” said Ms Mwirigi.
