When Suheil Mkalla Mumba completed his KCSE examinations in 2023, his dream of becoming a doctor felt closer than ever.
He was thrilled at the prospect of being the first medic in his family and the first in his village of Kombani in Kwale County.
Mkalla’s academic journey is a remarkable success story. Despite the challenges of poverty that prevented him from attending his dream school, Dr Aggrey Boys High School in Wundanyi, he excelled in his KCPE examinations with 389 marks and went on to achieve an A- at Kwale High School.
“I always wanted to go to Dr Aggrey, but due to my parents’ financial status they could not afford to enroll me there. At the time, the County Government was only sponsoring students who had secured positions at national schools, but Dr Aggrey is an extra-county school. Our quickest option was Kwale High School and I joined Form 1 in 2020,” he said in an interview.
Mkalla was fortunate to receive county sponsorship at Kwale High School. However, he mentioned that it often didn’t cover the full school fees, which placed financial strain on his parents.
“I come from a humble background, and sometimes it is difficult for my parents to put food on the table for me and my five siblings,” he added.
His mother, Tatu Mohamed, appealed to well-wishers and sponsors for assistance in covering the substantial annual fees of Ksh490, 940 needed for him to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor, as they were unable to raise the funds themselves.
“We don’t have the capacity to help our son, and we are appealing to sponsors to come out and help him because studying medicine has been his dream since he was a young boy,” she said.
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She recalled moments when Mkalla would assure her he would become the family’s doctor, a pledge she initially didn’t take seriously until he committed himself wholeheartedly to his studies to pursue his dream.
“He kept telling me, Mother I want to be a doctor, I want to treat people,’ countless times as a young boy, and when he grew up, he told me of his desire to be a neurosurgeon,” she shared.
Tatu mentioned that they have pursued funding from various sources, including applying for a Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) scholarship. However, the scholarship funds are typically disbursed well into the semester, leaving the family without sufficient funds to enroll Mkalla before the scholarship money arrives.
Netizens have expressed sympathy for the family while criticizing the government’s decision to defund HELB and implement a new university funding model, which they argue is excluding students from lower-income backgrounds from pursuing their careers.
“Defunding HELB and that new university funding model that requires students to sijui ‘pass certain criteria’ will see the rise of so many cases like this,” Justine Wanda lamented.
“Most of the intellectuals we see today are a result of the subsidized university fees and HELB. Fees could hardly reach 50,000 for government sponsored students. The new funding model is working in boardrooms but not in the universities. Many continuing students have dropped out,” another X user named Mukabana James commented.
“We are fighting for such. We want a country where anyone can access education in both elementary and higher education,” Icon Saeko stated.
According to a report from a local publication, Egerton University’s medical training is the priciest among Kenyan universities, charging up to Ksh643, 940 annually for first-year students.
By Frank Mugwe
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