I am ready to give up my kidney for a job, says graduate
Dennis Omundi, a BSc Agricultural Economics graduate from Egerton University, has a request.
He wrote in an email:
“I am willing to donate a kidney to anyone in need in exchange of a JOB. Please help me to circulate the information. Thanks.”
He was invited to Nairobi News and here is his story:
“I have applied for over 40 jobs since I graduated. I have worked in construction sites, doing mjengo work, getting paid Sh150 or such dismal pay but I never minded. I used the money I received to apply for jobs,” says the soft spoken young man.
For his efforts, all he got was one rejection letter after the other. ‘We regret to inform you… In case of any opening, we will inform you.’ Or ‘Your job application and details have gone into our database; we will keep an eye for forthcoming opportunities…’
Born in 1992, Dennis is the third born in a family of five siblings. His first born sister is married – and is not doing so well. The second born brother used to run a roadside food kiosk while his mother, Yunuke Moraa, divorced their father, and has since lived a life of struggle, picking tea or brewing chang’aa at different points as Dennis grew up.
OTHER ALTERNATIVES
In 2007, Dennis sat for KCPE at Endereti COG Primary school and scored 351 marks out of the possible 500, beating the student who came after him by 70 marks. He proceeded to Nyabikena High School in Tabaka where in 2011, he scored a B plain and thereafter, joined Egerton University to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics and graduated last year, with a Second Class Upper.
“I have to do this. There might be other alternatives out there, but for me, this is the only way. I don’t have any other alternatives,” he says. But why now, and why such an extreme measure?
“I want to help my mother. I want to pay school fees for my younger sister who is in form two right now. My mother can’t cope with the money requirements for her school fees since she is still a tea picker.”
But more importantly, his sister’s daughter just got sent away from school a few weeks ago. She is also a form two student and Dennis believes her being sent out of school is directly because of him.
He explains that despite being a JAB student, his HELB loan never really materialiased. In fact, he got one HELB loan payment, and it was made when he was in fourth year.
The rest of his fee payments for the first three years were joint efforts from his sister, brother and mother. The sister made a gamble, selling some of the cows she owned to pay his school fee, with the understanding that when he graduated or before, he’d payback.
NO JOB
Now, he is a graduate and out of university, but with no job. The girl, a student at Nyakoiba Mixed Secondary School is no longer in school.
Dennis, who says that he has no home, except his mother’s people, has been living with a friend, Mr Francis Karin, who he met at the university from 2013 on and off till today.
After his mother got divorced, she remarried but the stepfather was violent and they had to leave.
He worked once, between June-August 2015 as a research enumerator on a project that was run by Tegemeo Institute and Michigan State University.
Won’t this be too drastic and too early since he’s barely been in the job market?
“I have to do this. That young girl can’t be out of school because of me. And my mother needs help, she also needs a place to live and call home. I have Googled what living with one kidney means and it is a risk I am willing to take. I’m ready to go through with it anytime, as long as the person who receives my kidney or his family can assure me that they will work out a way for me to get a job.”
He finishes by saying that anyone who can help, is welcome to help though.
