City tout gets degree after funding studies with Sh1700 weekly savings
A Nairobi bus conductor is next month set to graduate with an undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Commerce in Procurement, a heartening end to a journey that was driven by sheer determination and focus.
Twenty nine year-old Simon Ndaya Maina has been working as a bus conductor at Kenya Bus Service by day and a student by night at the University of Nairobi.
The odds have been staked against him in the five year journey, occasionally seeing him miss out a few semesters as he saved money for fees. But he remained focused on the prize.
From his weekly savings of between Sh1800 to Sh1700, he managed to finally pay for his education.
The second-born in a family of six children, Maina had always been a bright student. He scored a grade B plain of 64 points in his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, which he sat for in 2005. Unfortunately, the Joint Admissions Board had revised the university entrant mark to 67 points.
Maina applied for admission at the University of Nairobi in August 2009 for a Bachelor of Commerce.
He had saved a little over Sh19,000. This, coupled with Sh 20,000 he had received from a trust fund he had approached, Maina registered for the first semester. The rest, as they say, is history.
The only challenge for him now is that he has been unable to get a professional job and is still working at a bus conductor.
