Oduory Titus Oseso while outside their tent at Humwanda flood rescue center where they have been staying since 2020|Photo Courtesy|
Oduory Titus Oseso, a former student of John Osogo Boys High School in Budalangi, Busia county who scored an A minus in the 2024 KCSE exams, said that he defied all odds to excel despite the circumstances that had forced them to vacate their home and relocate to a flood rescue center.
Their home in Mudibia village in the flood prone Bunyala South zone is situated barely a few metres from Lake Victoria. The area has been, and is still frequently affected by the backflow of the lake which has flooded several homesteads, pushing the occupants into various flood rescue centers across Bunyala Sub county.
Oseso, during an interview with The Nyanza Review on Monday, January 20 said owing to his dad’s financial constraints, he had no option but to remain a day scholar, commuting from Humwanda flood rescue center through River Nzoia to school, almost twenty five kilometers away by boat daily.
“Life at the flood rescue center where we had sought refuge was unbearable. The makeshift tents were too small to accommodate all of us, but we just had to squeeze ourselves there in,” stated Oseso.
However, according to the desperate student, his principal, Mr Paul Obuya in collaboration with some of his teachers, sympathized with him and offered to pay his boarding fees so he could stay in school and have ample time for studies ahead of the exams.
“One fateful morning as the boat we had boarded was mainstream, it accidentally capsized throwing us into the fast flowing river whose level had increased due to the heavy rains at the time. As for me, I managed to swim up to the river bank, but unfortunately some of the passengers who couldn’t swim to safety perished,” recalled the student.
His father, Bonface Ogessa, a fisherman, said life at the flood rescue center was deplorable. They would suffer bouts of malaria as the mosquito nets were scarce.
“We also suffered from waterborne diseases, but the public health team from the area moved with speed and.did all they could to provide us with the necessary drugs,” he said.
“In an effort to raise money for school fees, my son would insist, against my wish to accompany me to the lake to help me spread the fishing nets in a wide area so we could catch plenty of fish for sale,” he added.
However, Ogessa thanked the school principal and his teachers for volunteering to support his son by paying his boarding fees and part of the school fees.
“Were it not the assistance of the school principal Mr Paul Obuya and his teachers, frankly speaking my son would not have made it, so I would want to greatly laud them for the support,” he said.
The determined and hard-working student eventually sat for his KCSE exams last year, attaining a mean score of an A minus that will usher him into the university later this year.
He scored plain As in Mathematics, Kiswahili, History and Government and Business Studies. He also scored A minus in Chemistry, B plus in Physics, B plain in Biology and a C plus in English.
The student who further said he intends to pursue either Medicine or Engineering at the university later this year, is desperately appealing to any well-wisher to sponsor him since his father is unable to afford his education singlehandedly.
“I am desperately appealing to any good samaritan to sponsor me to the university so I can be able to pursue the course I would wish to specialize in because my father is financially unstable,”he pleaded.
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