Jariel Ndeda Obura, the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE), has spoken on his performance in the national examinations.
Obura, who studied at Mang’u High School, scored a straight A of 87.167 points. He attributed his stellar performance to constant revision and practice.
He explained that he balanced all his subjects and this helped him emerge top in the 2021 KCSE exams.
"I have always put efforts in my studies. When I heard that I was Kenya one (top student), I was overjoyed," Obura stated.
Despite his outstanding performance, Obura noted that competition was stiff in Mang'u High School and he was not always the top student in his class.
He was caught by surprise after his fellow candidates called him informing that Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, named him as the best student during the announcement delivered at the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) headquarters on Saturday, April 23.
Unlike other top students who intend to join top universities such as Nairobi University and Kenyatta University, Obura stated that he wanted to join Maseno University and study medicine.
The KCSE top student noted that his inspiration to pursue medicine was informed by his love for science subjects.
"I have always wanted to pursue medicine. I just loved sciences such as Biology and Chemistry since joining form one," Obura stated.
He emerged top beating over 800,000 others who sat for the exams between March 11 and April 1, this year.
He was followed by Mukuha Timothy Kamau of Alliance High School who scored 87.139 points and Job Ngara of Mangu High School (87.1 points).
In the results, 789 male candidates scored A plain, beating their female counterparts who only had 349 A plains, summing to 1,138 candidates.
