Secondary student Evalyne Wairimu begs for school fees on Nairobi streets.

For 15-year-old Evalyne Wairimu, holding a poster and soliciting tuition fees from strangers in Nairobi’s central business district is the only way she can join her classmates at school.
Last Wednesday, he left his home in Nkuroi, Kajiado County, at 5am without telling his mother.

“I have been at home for about two weeks now and it seems I am in danger of dropping out of school because we do not have the money to pay taxes,” Evalyne said in an interview with Nation.

The boy is a student at Kihumbu-liver High School in Murang’a County. On May 9, her mother dropped her off at school due to a 22,000 shilling school fees.

Beatrice Wanjiku, Evalyne’s mother, had planned to transfer her daughter to an affordable school in Rongai. She had held talks with a teacher at Ereteti Mixed Secondary School to receive her daughter at school as she paid her first semester fee of 9,440 shillings in installments.

However, after a day’s stay at Ereteti Mixed High School, the school authorities sent Evalyne back home because her mother had paid only 1,000 shillings.

Since then, they have gone from house to house asking for donations from friends, family and supporters, with little success.