When Sheila Chepng’eno shared her story of life on Facebook, little did she know that her fortunes were about to turn. She was doing it for fun.
Yet life at times is not funny, looks insurmountable, with unrelenting forces forging alliances along battlefronts to make it seem even grimmer, with no chance of escape.
The future, at best, offers only what it can; the promise of worse to come. Hopelessness starts closing in like a lion gaining on an exhausted prey. All you can pray for is a quick end to the indomitable suffering.
This is what life looked like to Sheila Chepng’eno at a young age, the first born in a family of five.
They are orphans, having lost their parents before they learnt the art of independence.
She was left to take care of her toddler siblings when she lost her mother in 2007. Barely a teenager then, she took upon herself to feed and clothe them.
Her father Harry Kimutai had passed on when she was too young to recollect his face. He was a police officer.
So when the mother, a teacher, died, fate had struck with a double-handed blow to deny her a conventional childhood. She was now literally an adult.
Registered as an electrical engineer with registration number A4449 in 2021, perhaps amongst the very few in Nandi County registered by the Engineers Board of Kenya, she can look back from her position at public works to that time as the period of momentous trial in her life.
She had barely scrapped through. Yet in spite of the horrendous circumstances, she managed to join the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) after scoring an incredible A- (78 points) at Kapsabet Girls in 2010.
Her engineering course occupied her between 2012 and 2017, exactly ten years after her mother’s death.
She was supported by the Mvita NG-CDF to pay her fees while her grandmother, working in tea estates back at home, paid for her accommodation.
Along the way, she ensured all her siblings back in Nandi got an education, working in restaurants in Mombasa during her free time to sufficiently cater for them both in school and at home.
“Lunch and supper were no problem as I ate in the restaurants I worked for, enabling me to save for my siblings,” recalls Chepng’eno.
Discipline, hard work and resilience saw her through.
After graduating, she briefly worked with Mombasa Cement for eight months. The job put two and two together for her, but her yearning to go back to Nandi and make a change in the lives of young people had her thinking of how she can get there.
She remembered the dilapidated state of their family house and made the resolve to renovate it and make it a better place for her siblings.
Her wish would be granted when she shared her story on Facebook which was widely read and shared among her friends.
This brought the attention of Nandi County Governor Stephen Sang, who called her and invited her for an interview through the Public Service Board.
Sheila was employed on a one year contract in the public works department in 2019, and later placed under permanent and pensionable terms.
Her consuming drive was to connect electricity to all household and make rural roads passable. With all the bureaucratic bottlenecks, she is yet to fully realize this dream.
Awaiting her graduation next year, Chepng’eno has now completed her master’s degree at the University of East London.
Meanwhile, she has submitted her thesis for oral presentation at the World Engineers Convention slated for October this year in Prague, the Czech Republic.
Born in Chepterit village 30 years ago, the single mother of one has been much more than a shoulder to lean on for Felix Kiprono, Daisy Cheptoo, Stephen Kipkorir and Sandra Cherop.
She wants to mentor and guide them and other young people on choosing their careers, herself serving as a practical example of how obstacles in life should be seen as what they are – just challenges to be overcome.
Sheila plans to enroll for a doctorate (PhD) as soon as she can.
By Leonard Angatia
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