In 2007, I visited Kisumu City for the first time in my lifetime to participate in the revision of university courses application.
I’d sat for my exams in 2006 and during those times, students who had passed their exams would stay at home for 1 year and seven months. That means I was at home the whole of 2007 and then in 2008 I joined college on 25 September, 2008.
The way the choosing University courses worked is that during your final year in high school after exams, one selected courses of interested. That is before exams were released. This was not a final decision because in 2007 we were given a second chance to revise our application for courses to reflect what we had scored in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
I woke up very early from my rural home in the current Nyamira County and traveled to Kisumu City. I remember, I arrived at the main stage and asked for directions from the matatu crew.
The matatu crews told me that the building I was looking for was opposite Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) along Oginga Odinga street.
On arrival at the Kenya Commercial Bank branch along Oginga Odinga Street, I asked the bicycle taxi “Ngware” riders for directions. They consulted each other and told me that the building I was looking for was at Milimani area of Kisumu.
The bicycle taxis were referred to as “Ngware” in the local Dholuo language. The taxi guy carried me up the hill and finally dropped me at the Provincial Commissioner’s Office on the hill and disappeared. I majestically walked into the building which I had been shown and sat at the reception arwea where I inquired whether that was the Joint Admission Board (JAB) offices. The lady said no and issued me new directions to the right office.
Once again I was directed back to Oginga Odinga Street’s Kenya Commercial Bank branch and once I get there, I was asked to cross the road to get access to the ‘elusive’ building. I suddenly realized that the Ngware men had tricked me in order for them to earn their daily bread from a naive village boy.
I revised the courses and returned home in the evening. Those university students from my village had already advised me to fill the forms with the same course but at three different universities. I applied for a Bachelor’s of Education (Arts) degree at the University of Nairobi (UON), Kenyatta University and lastly Moi University.
That way I was assured of getting admitted to a university within the capital city. I believed since I was a village boy, studying at a University within the capital city was the coolest thing that would ever happen in my life. At the time I believed that that was the best thing after sliced bread.
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