A Kenyatta University graduate is now a distraught and full-time hawker, after the degree he pursued at the university failed to secure him employment with the Teachers Service Commission.
Abraham Maina, a teacher by profession, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Education Arts in 2008 with Geography and Mathematics as the teaching subjects.
Since then, he has taught in several schools including St Joseph High School in Kiambu and Ruiru Girls High School, under the Board of Management.
Maina also obtained a TSC number with the hopes of becoming a civil servant but his dream has never materialized.
The reality of joblessness became more evident after being rejected in several job interviews, reason being he pursued the degree without having qualified.
Maina finished his secondary education in 2002, scoring B- in Mathematics and C plain in Geography, but could not join university because of lack of fees owing to his poor family background.
Fortune came his way when well-wishers showed up years later and promised to sponsor him to study for a degree, after which he enrolled at Kenyatta University where he graduated with a second class upper division.
However, many years later, he was shocked to learn that for one to qualify to train as a teacher, they must have scored at least a C+ in every teaching subject.
It is this revelation that forced Maina to become a hawker after losing hope in being a teacher, despite the relentless efforts he had put to ensure that he teaches secondary school.
His hawking business hit a snag in the advent of the pandemic, which put pressure on the 38-year-old trained graduate who has a family to fend for.
His shuttered dreams have now reignited in the wake of his current misery, as Maina is calling for the government to intervene and salvage him from his dire situation.
He is calling for the authorities to launch an investigation into why the university offered him an opportunity to study a program he did not qualify, and why TSC registered him and later turned and rejected his papers.
