Doris Waithera scored a KCSE mean grade of A. This was a coveted mean grade of A Plain of 81 points. When she received her results after sitting the 2023 KCSE examinations, Doris swelled up with hope that finally, she was on her way to pursuing her dream course of medicine.
Her passion for medicine draws from her personal life. Doris Waithera is the last born of three children. She lives with her parents and siblings in a one-bedroom house in Nakuru’s informal settlements.
One of her siblings is autistic. Watching him struggle with health challenges has pushed her to work hard with the aim of getting into the field of medicine, and later to specialize as a paediatric cardiologist. But a few months after her KCSE stellar performance, poverty and broken political promises are now threatening to kill this dream.
The KCSE star is supposed to report at the Aga Khan University by August 30 where she has gotten a partial annual scholarship. The university will be paying 70 per cent of her tuition fees amounting to Sh. 855,044 and 90 per cent of her accommodations amounting to Sh. 241,020 and she will be paying the remainder per academic year.
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In her first academic year that is about to start, Doris Waithera is supposed to pay Sh. 412,000 per year; the remaining tuition fees plus accommodation. She was supposed to have paid half of the Sh. 150,765 required for her first trimester by July 30.
“The university called last Friday and asked if I was still interested in the scholarship. I asked them to give me a week but it is now August 4 and I have not seen any light,” she says.
She had initially hoped to be placed for a medicine course by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS). However, she was not placed into this course because according to KUCCPS, she missed the cut off point.
“They said my A of 43.073 cut-off points would not be enough to pursue medicine. I missed the 44 cut-off point by 0.023,” she says.
She was set up by KUCCPS for an architecture course at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). To keep her dream alive, she instead applied for scholarship to pursue a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery MBChB at the Aga Khan University.
“At Aga Khan, I enrolled for an examination for the scholarship and competed with 500 other candidates, I made the top 120. We did another examination in June and I was among the top 70, and I was given the partial scholarship,” she says.
As she struggles to raise the money for her education, Doris Waithera has reached out to Nakuru East MP David Gikaria who had pledged to sponsor the KCSE star. However, she has been unable to reach him. ““My daughter visited his office, teachers called him and set up appointments but we have no answer to date,” Doris’ father said.