By Arnold Ageta
At the age of five, his mother parted ways with his father, forcing her to leave her matrimonial home and return to Bomondo, Nyamira County, where she was born.
Dr. John Kebaso grew up with his grandmother, who, along with his grandfather, adopted him as their son.
His grandmother took care of him as he attended Bomondo Primary School, often barefoot and wearing torn and patched school uniforms.
“I did not see my father throughout my education until I finished university,” he painfully remembers. “People always told me he was dead, but he was not dead.”
His grandmother, a jobless peasant, struggled to ensure her children and grandson went to school.
“It was a hard struggle, but somehow it worked until my mother got a small job in Nakuru,” Kebaso recalled. “It is funny that when I went to school in Nakuru town, everyone was wearing shoes, but I went to class barefooted.”
He said students laughed at and ridiculed him, which motivated him to work even harder in class.
He promised himself that he would never see another child being laughed at. In Nakuru, he joined Mlimani Primary School, where he was the best student in the municipality and was admitted in 1989 to his dream school, Moi High School, Kabarak, to realize his dream of becoming a medical doctor.
“The admission letter came with conditions that I needed KES 13,000 (USD 130) to attend that school,” he said. “My mother was earning around KES 2,000 a month, and we needed to pay rent and buy food.
She looked at me and said, ‘Son, I don’t think you can make it to this school.’”
With tears in his eyes, Dr. Kebaso said that he cried that day, feeling he had beaten poverty by getting into the best school, only for the same poverty to bar him from joining his dream school.
Dr. Kebaso was forced to join Menengai High School, which was 5 kilometers away from the London estate where he was staying.
“I would wake up every morning to trek to and from school because we could not afford the bus fare, which was 50 cents,” he remembers. “They had a school lunch program at a cost of KES 200 (USD 2) a month that I was also unable to afford.”
He stayed in school from morning to evening without a meal and walked back home tired and angry, but he was able to make it to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), where he studied Biochemistry.
“In my heart, I said, this is closer to becoming a medical doctor because that was the course I dreamed of studying,” he said.
Dr. Kebaso completed top of his class and received a scholarship to study for a master’s degree. Upon completion of his master’s degree, he got a job with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a United States science-based, data-driven service organization.
“This is the time my life changed,” he said, glowing with happiness. “I do not want to see a student undergo what I went through in their quest to achieve their academic dreams.”
While working with the CDC, he was admitted to study for a PhD in the US, where he also started working.
It was while he was in the US that the dream of the Kebaso Foundation was born, and he embarked on his mission of supporting needy and bright students.
The Kebaso Scholarship Program assists needy students from low-income families, focusing on providing financial aid to students who cannot afford tuition fees.
The foundation officially launched and started operations in 2020 in the US and has so far supported 46 students in both high school and universities.
Speaking during the come-together ceremony in Nyamira yesterday, Dr. Kebaso said that in 2024, the foundation is supporting 34 students all over Kenya.
The foundation seeks to raise an annual budget of USD 50,000 by the end of 2025 to cater to the growing number of needy students who need funding for school fees.
Dr. Kebaso asked donors to join them in supporting needy and bright students from underprivileged families.
The Kebaso Foundation also connects graduates of its programs to companies looking for employees, helping graduates find jobs and earn a living.
The ceremony brought together Kebaso Foundation beneficiaries and their parents, who were hosted at Sironga Girls High School before sharing a meal at Nyamira Heights.
The beneficiaries were gifted school bags, calculators, and other stationery during the ceremony.
Sironga Girls High School Chief Principal, Jane Nyumba, applauded the foundation, saying many students in various schools are vulnerable and need more than financial support.
“Some have lost both of their parents or are partial orphans. Others have both parents or single parents but are not able to raise the school fees,” she said.
She further regretted that they always face the challenge of sending away students who have not paid their school fees, knowing that they will not be able to raise the fees.
“As principal, we know that they do not have a place to get the school fees,” she confessed.
“When someone shows up and takes up the responsibility of paying the school fees for them, we really appreciate it.”
She added that the foundation has assisted many students who otherwise may have dropped out of school. Dorcah Kerubo, a form 3 beneficiary student from Sironga Girls, thanked the foundation for the studying opportunity they have offered, saying the foundation seeks to ensure that no bright student drops out of school due to a lack of school fees.
“I have been inspired that when I one day get employed, I will also support students who are unable to raise school fees,” she said.
Dr. Kebaso called on politicians and other leaders to support needy students by paying their school fees to ensure the dreams of bright students are not dimmed.
“We may not be able to support every student in the county, but we are supporting 15 students from Nyamira and 10 from Kisii County,” he concluded.
