When the results of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education are released, everyone pays attention on the top performers. These KCSE top students are interviewed and asked what they want to pursue at the university.

However, when the noise dies down, now one really bothers to find out if these KCSE top students are retained in Kenya or what becomes of them. Alas, after the noise has died down, top world universities come calling. They know their value. They give them scholarships and the ticket to leave Kenya.

Once they board the planes, very few ever return to settle. They attend top universities and end up getting top jobs in foreign countries where they contribute immensely in the development of their host nations’ economies. In Kenya, they only come to visit and catch up with their families.

This sad state of affairs has been happening since 1989. This is ehat a research by Mutemi wa Kiama and Collins Mabinda has shown. Take a look at what Kiama’s research has unearthed;

“I have been doing some research on where Kenya’s best and brightest high school brains ended up. Here is what I found out,” he said:

1989- KCSE Naaem Samnakay (Alliance High School), top student in 1989- He is now a pediatric surgeon in Australia.

1990 KCSE- David Were (Starehe), he is now an engineer in America.

1991- Humphrey Wattanga( Alliance High School). He went to Harvard and is now in a leading insurance company in South Africa.

1992- David Tengetta. (Mangu High School)- He is an engineer in America.

1993- Kaniaru Wacieru (Alliance High School)- He went to Harvard and is now working in Wall Street.

1994- Kirimania Muriithi (Alliance High School). He went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Now a computer engineer in America.

Kenyan who got D+ in KCSE now has 5 degrees from top US universities

1995- James Mwangi (Alliance High School), went to Harvard. Now a management consultant in South Africa.

1997- Mwashuma Nyatta (Alliance High School), went to Harvard, now works for Soft Bank as Latin America as head of startups.

1998- Timothy Thairu (Alliance High School). Went to Harvard, now a computer engineer in America.

1999- Samuel Gikandi (Alliance High School). Went to MIT, worked for Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, before confounding Africa’s talking. A board member of Stanbic Bank.

2000- Dhar Tishampati (Mangu High School)- Went to Adelaide university in Australia. Now a defense systems engineer in Australia.

2005- James Kandie Rotich. Went to Kabarak High School. Enrolled in MIT and is now an engineer at Google.

“Now you understand why things don’t move in Kenya. Our best fled/were given full scholarships to universities abroad,” Kiama said. He went on;

“The top girl in 2019 KCSE Maryanne Njeri Baraza said she wants to go to Harvard, study medicine, and live in Boston, USA. No Kenya in her future plans.

“She made good her plans, she is now a biomedical engineering student at Dartmouth college, an Ivy League college, and may well apply to Harvard Medical school since medicine in America is a postgraduate professional course. But can you blame her really in a country where semi illiterate politician thieves are billionaires and PhD holders are broke and tarmacking?”