In a dusty community hall in Alego Usonga, despair turned into jubilation today as 46 bright but needy students received the lifeline they had prayed for: a full four-year high school scholarship worth KES 8.6 million.

The scholarship, funded by the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), targets the "poorest of the poor"—students who scored high marks in their exams but had zero chance of joining Form One due to crushing poverty. As the dummy cheque was raised, tears flowed freely from parents who had resigned themselves to seeing their children's dreams wither at home.

Selection of the Fittest

NG-CDF Committee Chairman George Odede described the selection process as "agonizing but necessary." The fund received over 140 desperate applications. To ensure fairness, the committee conducted rigorous home visits to verify the poverty status of each applicant.

• Criteria of Need: "We didn't just look at the marks," Odede explained. "We looked at the roof over their heads. We looked at whether they had eaten that day. We selected 46 orphans and children of total destitution. These are brilliant minds that were about to be lost to the cycle of poverty."
• The Package: The KES 8.6 million covers tuition, uniforms, and boarding fees for the entire four-year duration. This "full-ride" model is a departure from the usual KES 5,000 bursaries that often leave students sent home for fee balances midway through the term.

Investing in the Future

Area MP Samuel Atandi hailed the initiative as the only sustainable way to uplift the constituency. "Education is the great equalizer," he told the gathering. "By educating these 46, we are liberating 46 families from poverty in the next decade."

The students, clutching their admission letters like gold, promised to work hard. For them, this is not just money; it is a second chance at life. In a county where school fees often compete with food, today’s event was a reminder that sometimes, the system actually works for the little guy.