Nahasion Igeria Mbugua had never attained the first position in school, in fact he had always been an average pupil, scoring between 300 and 350 marks in normal school examinations.

He never imagined that he would one day be one of the top students in Nakuru County and the country, scoring 425 in his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).

The 14-year-old, from St Anthony Catholic School, KCPE exceeded the expectations of his teachers and family.

He was always in the top ten, but not the top of his school. In an interview with his father, John Igeria, a teacher by profession, he notes that they expected good results from him as he had shown a steady improvement in his performance.

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"He gradually improved from a 350 mark student to a 400 mark student. He would study late into the night and do a lot of revision with the help of his mother, who is also a teacher. A joint effort was made to help him improve his grades. But his results surprised us," says Mr Igeria.

Recalling the moment she received her sons' results, Mary Muthoni says the compound was thrown into jubilation.

"The days started gloomily as we kept getting 'dear client, the KCPE 2023 results are not available'. I thought maybe his results had been cancelled. I was very worried. I did not know that there was a technical problem nationwide," she explains.

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However, she notes that on her sixth attempt, after midday, she finally received the results.

"I jumped out of my chair and went out cheering when I saw the results. Suddenly everyone in our compound was celebrating with us, including his father who was at the farm at the time," she says, smiling.

Describing Mbugua's character, Tom Mori, his English teacher and examiner at St Antony's, says Mbugua was a humble student who consulted his teachers a lot and was willing to help his fellow students.

"He worked hard and we expected him to do well. He was an average student who had a lot of academic potential. He did his last run in style. To go from an average student to a top student was not what we expected," said Mr Mori.

Mbugua hopes to join Mangu High School as he wants to study aviation and become a pilot.

Wanjurukinuthia20@gmail.com

Nahasion Mbugua: I was never number one in school, but now I am the best after scoring 425 marks in KCPE

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