When Lucy Wangechi received a phone call summoning her to Maragua police station last Saturday, she did not know her daughter's life was about to take a turn for the better.
Wangechi had been struggling to raise fees for her daughter Linet Muthoni who was to join Form 1 last week.
But the casual labourer could not raise the fees and items for her daughter to be admitted. Her husband is also a casual labourer.
Muthoni had attempted to commit suicide after all her peers joined secondary school, leaving her at home.
The matter was reported to Maragua police and OCS Cleophas Juma sprang into action.
He reached out to several security officers and other stakeholders, appealing for help. Through his lobbying, enough funds were raised to help Muthoni join Kianguyi Girls Secondary School in Kangema from where she had received an admission letter.
And that is when the OCS called the distraught mother and told her to go to the station with her daughter. A boda boda operator was sent to their home to pick them up.
When Wangechi got to the station, she was pleasantly surprised to be informed that the money she needed to take her daughter to school had been raised.
“I was very apprehensive on my way to the police station because I did not know why I had been summoned,” she said, adding that in her mind, people summoned to police stations are those with criminal cases.
Right away, the two were taken to Thika town in Kiambu county where they purchased uniforms and other personal effects. They then returned to the police station, finding a team of officers waiting to escort her to school.
Assistant county commissioner Joshua Okello, who led the team, lauded the OCS for taking action that was well beyond his jurisdiction to save the life and future of the girl.
“When the case reached him, he took up the matter very actively and has even talked to the principal of the secondary school informing her to expect the girl,” Okello said.
“We have moved as a team as national government administration officers and even given our personal contributions to buy the uniforms.”
He noted that this was part of their mandate to ensure there is a 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schools.
“The President is very candid about the primary to secondary school transition and in Maragua, we have combed all schools to ensure every pupil who sat the KCPE exam joins a secondary school,” he said.
The team then collectively left the police station and accompanied the mother and her daughter to the school where she was admitted.
Muthoni pledged to work hard to uplift her family’s living standards and empower other students in dire situations such as hers. Her dream is to become a doctor.
She said she had started looking for casual jobs to help her parents raise her fees and thanked God for giving her the chance to join her school of choice.
“I had lost all hope. I thought I would be condemned to doing menial jobs because I did not think my parents would be able to enrol me in school.”
Wangechi could not hide her tears of joy. Due to her financial situation, her other daughter had to join a local day school despite receiving an admission letter from Ruchu Girls High School.
Ichagaki MCA Charles Mwangi said he will ensure Muthoni is sponsored through her secondary education under the county government’s Nyota Zetu scholarship programme that benefits 1,000 new students every year.
Mwangi praised OCS Juma for his commitment to reducing the crime rate in the area and going further to improve lives.
Ichagaki is notorious for illicit liquor brewing. In 2019, brewers attacked administrators to avoid arrest. Security officers had to mobilise their colleagues from other parts of the county to fight the brewers, who trade in marshy areas of Maisha Mathi villages.