Kibera boy beats all odds to top exam :: Kenya

Joshua Kabaka Angwekwe was elated after he scored 446 marks in the KCPE exam.

The country's top scorer beat him by just seven marks.

When The Standard team traced him to Kibera at Wanawake kwa Wanawake, a nongovernmental organisation that sponsors needy children, he could not hide his joy.

Born in Kakamega in 2003 and the eighth born in a family of 11 children, Angwekwe said his education journey started at a public school in Kibera. An NGO stepped in to sponsor his education, but this was short-lived as they sent him away in 2012.

“My life in Kibera has not been easy, we slept hungry many times. I sold scrap metal to get money for food," he said.

At some point he almost dropped out of school due to peer pressure. In 2013, Wanawake kwa Wanawake took him in and sent him to school.

The director of the NGO, Leonida Kwamboka, said Angwekwe was full of potential and always worked hard.

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“We saw the boy’s potential and knew he would perform well in his studies,” said Kwamboka.

After two schools he had joined were closed down, we enrolled him at Ruden Junior Academy in Lavington where he sat his exam.

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