The dream to work in a Bank after attaining a Business Management Degree in Finance and Banking and CPA 1 has turned to wishful thinking for 26-year old Moi University graduate.
For Boniface Kirui, this dream is now a mirage. He has been forced to settle for a job as a security guard at Agape Courts in Makadara Estate. He earns a meager sh7, 000 per month.
“I always dreamt of working in a bank or this big financial institution. I imagined myself smartly dressed in a suit and a tie as I headed to work every morning. But that has not yet come to be. I’m a working as a guard at Agape Court in Makadara Estate,” he says.
Born to a soldier and a farmer, Kirui says his growing up was very comfortable that he never imagined life would be the way it is today.
“I am the first born in a family of five. I grew up in Olesoi village in Kibreret ward, Bomet County. My childhood was fun and enjoyable, unlike my present day situation. Being a first-born, I never lacked reading materials, food, medical care and clothing. My father was then working as a soldier with the Kenya Army, and my mother was a housewife, and a subsistence farmer. We all schooled at the nearby Kidisoronik Primary School, located within the village, just a walking distance from home,” His transition to secondary school was not a challenge either. His parents would comfortably pay his school fees throughout his secondary school at Longisa Boys’ High School where he scored a B (62 points).
However, life changed after he enrolled for his Degree course at Moi University Kericho Campus in 2011.
His parents found it hard to pay his school fees since they had to pay for his siblings as well who were now in secondary school.
“My younger siblings had joined secondary school and my family was struggling financially. Paying for school fees was a challenge and in between, I had to do menial jobs like hawking second-hand clothes, especially T-shirts and jeans trousers to my fellow students to earn some pocket money. At other times, I would approach businesses in Eldoret town to run errands for them as a messenger, whenever I had a free day from class. This saw me earn Sh50 per task and I would make a maximum of Sh150 in a day. Though this was only twice in a week, it kept me going as I would invest it in second-hand clothing. But the small business could not grow because I was using the little profit to support my living expenses and part of my school fees. For the four years that I studied, I juggled between menial jobs and school work. I eventually graduated in 2015.”
Fast forward to today; Kirui who is among Kenya’s schooled youths lives in Kibera; one of Kenya’s largest slums where he can manage to pay his rent at sh2, 500 per month out of his sh7, 000 salaries.
The money is never enough and he walks from his house to his job place as he cannot afford to pay the fare.
“There is hardly enough money to take me through the month, the money is not even enough for bus fare alone, so I walk to work,” he notes plaintively.
But, he says, he has not given up on his dream though to some point, his parents feel like they wasted their resources in schooling him through university.
“My parents feel as though they have wasted their resources, though they have not given up on me. I too feel the same.”
But his mother encourages him and he feels hopeful things will change one day.
“She always tells me that my time will come.”