Why S.K Macharia's Father Sold Family Wealth for Only Ksh 1,200 [VIDEO]

Royal Media Services owner and chairperson S.K Macharia while at Thogoto Teachers Training College on Friday, February 7, took time to narrate how he managed to pursue his education in the US.

Macharia was the guest of honour during the college's 68th graduation ceremony, where he helped clear fee balances for 50 needy students, as reported by Citizen TV. He donated Ksh 20,000 to each of the students.

He stressed the need for a good education and before he could embark on his speech, he opted to go down memory lane, narrating how he was able to study in the US.

"In 1958 and '59 I attended Kahuhia College for P3 teachers training and I qualified to teach class one pupils. I was number one out of that college and was posted to Gaturo Primary School where I taught for three months," Macharia narrated.

In 1960 Tom Mboya and then-US Senator John F. Kennedy entered into an agreement that would see Kenyan students pursue higher education in the US. Mboya, then a dynamic young leader, led the campaign that would eventually afford hundreds of Kenyans the opportunity to study abroad.

"At the time, there were these J.F. Kennedy-Tom Mboya flights going to the US. The US government, that time looking forward to independence, wanted Kenyan students to go to America to get a better education," Macharia narrated.

"We were charged Ksh 4,000 per person and you would get an education. You would go there, assigned to a host family, and offered a full scholarship. For only Ksh 4,000," he added.

After selling everything the family had, his father could only raise Ksh 1,200. As a result, he could not manage to go to the US through the Kennedy-Tom Mboya programme.

"I could not believe that I had struggled to get to complete school and I was left," Macharia stated, noting that at the time, the education was tailored in a way that they could join college after primary school.

A while later he was informed about an Indian man in Nairobi who facilitated travels abroad from Embakasi Airport (JKIA) and he sought to pursue the opportunity.

"I was brought to Embakasi to see this Indian and he asked me how much I had. I told him Ksh 1,200. He told me to go collect the money and bring it to him," Macharia recounted.

"I brought it to him, he gave me a ticket and some dollars, and told me to go to the American Embassy," Macharia added.

The RMS chairperson went to the embassy as instructed, presented the ticket plus the two hundred dollars and was awarded a visa.

"I went back to the Indian, he took the ticket, he tore it and took back his 200 dollars. I was surprised, but he told me to meet him the following day," Macharia recalled.

He had been asked to avail himself on the street opposite Ambassadeur Hotel along Moi Avenue, in Nairobi at exactly 5 a.m. When he got there, there were five Overseas Travel Company (OTC) buses parked and waiting for people to board.

Interestingly, he was the only African native, all the others were women of Asian descent.

"We travelled the whole day, the whole night, and we got to Uganda. I realised then that we were not headed back to Embakasi. I wondered if there is a way I would go back to Ndakaini but there was none," the businessman narrated.

"I thought that in the end, I was going to die," he conceded.

"When we got to river Nile, we were put in rafts and pushed into the river, and told to grab onto reeves when we got to the other side. Then we walked for a week to Juba. And for three months we travelled by bus to Benghazi," he narrated.

Some days, the bus would be covered in sand and for up to three days, they would wait for the wind to blow it off before they reembarked on their journey.

A boat ride from Benghazi to the UK, a couple of bus rides across Europe, and a final boat ride to the US made it four months since Macharia left Kenya to pursue an education in the US.

All because his father was Ksh 1,800 shy of the Ksh 4,000 required to earn him a flight though the Kennedy-Tom Mboya flights program.

He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of Washington, US.