Valid dreams: Mother beats all odds to graduate at 40

Ms Jerotich Cheison, 40. She graduated from the University of Nairobi in September with a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine degree. PHOTO | ELVIS ONDIEKI| NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• You read it right; Ms Jerotich Cheison graduated at 40, in a class of 66 where the average age of her colleagues was 24.
• A teenage pregnancy, an early marriage and another pregnancy while in university, spread in a span of 17 years, were stumbling blocks in her education path.
• Beaming with joy following the good Form Four results, Ms Cheison was admitted to the University of Nairobi in 2009 to study veterinary medicine.

By ELVIS ONDIEKI
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There is a new vet in Nandi County. She graduated from the University of Nairobi last month, has three children and is aged 40 years.

You read it right; Ms Jerotich Cheison graduated at 40, in a class of 66 where the average age of her colleagues was 24.

If the saying that life begins at 40 is true, it makes more sense for Ms Cheison, now armed with a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine degree.

She is not ashamed to disclose what made her such a late bloomer: she let herself be “used” by men, two men to be precise, and warns this should never happen to any other girl.

A teenage pregnancy, an early marriage and another pregnancy while in university, spread in a span of 17 years, were stumbling blocks in her education path.

But last month, she finally completed her studies after a five-year course at Kenya’s oldest university.

ABANDONED

Now older and wiser, she is on a mission to educate girls on the dangers of making irresponsible choices in their relationships with men.

When Ms Cheison was featured by the Daily Nation of March 9, 2005, she had just received the results of her Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Examination. She had scored an impressive B+ from Moi Girls High School, Eldoret.

She then was a subject of awe in her village because she had excelled despite having spent eight years out of primary school and having given birth twice — in 1990 and 1996.

The child born in 1990, a boy, was as a result of her getting married while in Standard Seven even though she held the top position throughout her time in primary school.

She returned to school a year later and in 1992, she sat her KCPE where she scored 52 out of 84 points, which she says was dismal.

She went back to the father of her child. In 1996, she gave birth to her second born, a girl.

However, the marriage didn’t last after the man abandoned her. Desolate, she become a nursery school teacher at Cheptabach Primary School near her home.

ANOTHER CHILD
It is in that same school that she enrolled for a take-two of KCPE in 2000 and set a record at the school by scoring 72 out of 84 points.

In secondary school, she kept her marital status a top secret. “No one except the principal knew,” she said.

Beaming with joy following the good Form Four results, Ms Cheison was admitted to the University of Nairobi in 2009 to study veterinary medicine.

But her woes were not over. She says a man heard her tell her story at a local FM station and got interested in her. He was then based in Iowa, US, but later travelled to Kenya.

“He pretended to be a very nice guy,” says Ms Cheison, who considers herself unlucky in relationships with men. In the end, she became pregnant by the man, who is currently a lecturer, and gave birth to her third born in 2010.

She deferred her university education for two years.

In 2012 she made a return to University of Nairobi’s Upper Kabete Campus, where the college is located.

Though she faced many hardships, she completed her studies and is now waiting for an end of the one-year internship period which the law stipulates that veterinary graduates should spend before they can be registered by the Kenya Veterinary Board.