No matter how long the night, the day will come

One boy’s barefoot walk from Big Tree Village to university carries a message every Kenyan child deserves to hear

By Simon Juma

I grew up in Big Tree Village, Trans Nzoia County, walking kilometres to school barefoot through cold, dew-soaked mornings, my uniform torn and patched by my mother’s careful hands, with no sweater against the highland chill.

I was sent home for fees more times than I can count. I stood outside staffrooms watching classmates learn through windows while I waited for a principal’s mercy. I borrowed books from libraries when I had no money for anything else. I never stopped going back.

My teachers at Big Tree Primary noticed a boy who came without shoes but never missed a lesson. That observation kept me going when shame threatened to do what poverty could not — make me quit.

Secondary school at St Raphael Big Tree was harder still. Friends drifted away — to boda boda work in Kitale, to early marriages, to nothing. I held onto one conviction: education was the only door I could afford to knock on. By God’s grace, I passed my KCSE. That result was my first morning light.

Today I study Communication and Media at Laikipia University. I write articles on a small phone. I edit stories at night. I have no laptop, no reliable internet, no camera — only focus, and the certain knowledge that I have already survived worse.

I tell anyone who asks why I push so hard: I have seen the night. I have walked through it without shoes. I know exactly what morning feels like.

To every child in Siata or Big Tree Village still sitting in class with a torn uniform and cold feet — your night is not permanent. Keep going.

The day will come.

The post No matter how long the night, the day will come appeared first on The Mt Kenya Times.