Former Governor Wycliffe Wangamati Overjoyed As Needy Girl He Helped Scores B Plus

• Hope Simiyu scored 394 marks in the 2019 KCPE examination and risked missing her Form One invitation due to a lack of fees
• Former Bungoma governor Wycliffe Wangamati would then take it upon himself to educate her alongside other needy but bright students
• Four years later, Wangamati's charitable act paid off as the students excelled in the 2023 KCSE examination, with Hope scoring a mean grade of B (plus)

Former Bungoma governor Wycliffe Wangamati has been impressed by the remarkable results posted by a bright but needy girl he took to school.

Hope Charity Simiyu, who scored 394 marks in the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination, risked missing her Form One place due to lack of money until Wangamati intervened.

Wycliffe Wangamati's charitable act

The former county chief executive's action saw Hope joining St Brigid's Kiminini, where she undertook her education until 2023, when she wrote her final examination.

She was among the 18,078 students who excelled in the national test with a grade of B+, justifying Wangamati's move to sponsor her education.

The girl was among other beneficiaries of the politician's scholarship program.

He celebrated their feat with pride.

"For Charity, Joy and all the students from the 3rd Cohort, I want to say congratulations! You have made me and Bungoma County proud," celebrated Wangamati.

Prior to her KCPE excellent performance, Hope had repeated classes due to her mother's inability to contribute to her primary school's feeding program.

"She had to repeat at some point as I could not raise 15 tins of maize and six of beans for the school feeding program," her mother recalled.

Their effort to secure scholarships from renowned institutional benefactors like Equity and KCB failed.

Repeating class eight would have been her next move had it not been for Wangamati's intervention.

Still in Bungoma, the fraternity at Kaptanai S.A Secondary School in Bungoma West was excited after candidates at the institution fared well in the examination.

Parents and alumni were astounded by the impressive results posted compared to the previous years.

14 direct university entries

A total of 91 candidates took the national examination at the centre.

Of the total entries, only 14 attained the university entry grades.

The best candidate scored B+ (plus), with two securing a B plain, seven B- (minus), and four with C+ (plus).

The remainder scored between C plain and D plain; 12 attained C plain, 21 with C- (minus), 27 with D+ (plus) and 17 with D plain.

A member and coordinator in the school's Board of Management (BOM), attributed the feat to cooperation between the teaching and non-teaching staff, parents, alumni and students.

Maurice Kimawachi revealed the candidates were subjected to numerous talks that fortified their focus on passing the examination.

"The students were motivated by friends and alumni of the school to post the tremendous performance. This would be a positive deviation of over 0.7 compared to the previous year," he said.

Kimawachi revealed that the school's top candidates had routinely fallen in the B- (minus) area, now taking the 2023 feat in which the top achiever scored a B+ (plus) as a sign of significant improvement.

This year, the school recorded the highest number of direct university entries in its history.

Accolades were directed to the principal, Doris Onyango, whose tenure has been hailed for being transformative.

Number of grade A in 2023 KCSE

Meanwhile, while releasing the 2023 results, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu revealed that only 1,216 candidates out of 895, 533 scored a mean grade of A.

"There were 1,216 (0.14%) candidates who obtained an overall grade of A in the 2023 KCSE Examination compared to 1,146 (0.13%) candidates in the year 2022," Machogu said.

Of those who scored As, 889 were from national schools, while 172 were from extra-county schools.

Private schools produced 143 As, with county and sub-county schools producing 5 and 7, respectively.

A total of 18,078 students attained a mean grade of B+, with 10,370 males and 7,708 females. For B plain, there are 36,728 candidates, while a total of 59,514 scored B-, and 78,343 scored C+.