Amina was the eldest of six children when she sat her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams in 2021 at a small school in Garissa County. Her father was a small-scale livestock trader; her mother kept the household running and tended a small kitchen garden. When Amina’s results came back — an A- — the family celebrated, then quietly faced the question they had been postponing: how would they afford secondary school? For families in this part of Northern Kenya, secondary school is expensive in ways that extend well beyond the headline fees. There are uniforms, books, transport to the nearest secondary school several kilometres away, examination registrations, and the lost contribution to household labour while a child is in class. For girls especially, decisions to send a daughter to secondary school often carry an added weight of community expectation. Amina’s parents wanted her to continue. They also knew the maths didn’t work. A neighbour mentioned the Islamic Foundation Kenya’s Education For All scholarship programme. Amina’s mother attended a community meeting at the local mosque, where IFK’s regional coordinator explained the application process. A few months later, Amina received word that her scholarship had been approved — full tuition for the first year, with continuation contingent on her academic performance. What followed was four years of work, support, and quiet resilience. Amina commuted on foot, then by motorbike, then sometimes by matatu when funds allowed. IFK’s coordinators checked in each term, provided supplementary materials, and connected her with a mentor — a former scholarship recipient who had gone on to study at the University of Nairobi. “I think what made the difference wasn’t just the school fees,” Amina says now. “It was knowing that someone was watching out for me. That my education mattered to people other than my parents.” She sat her KCSE in 2021, placed in the top decile in her county, and qualified for university admission. Today she is in her third year of pharmacy school as one of the IFK scholarship recipients who have transitioned from secondary to tertiary education in the past five years. Her younger sister is now in Form 2 — also on an IFK scholarship. “Amina set a path for us,” her mother says. “Now her sisters know it’s possible.”
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