Pleased with the performance of Meru School in last year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), former students visited the institution over the weekend to reward teachers, top performers, and non-teaching staff.
The alumni of the national school located in North Imenti constituency said the institution had emerged as one of the best in the country, hence their decision to reward those who made that possible.
Chief Principal Mwenda Rutere and board chairman Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, also a former student, hosted the colourful event and hailed the alumni's initiative to establish an endowment fund to assist the most financially vulnerable students.
In addition to donating Sh2m as seed capital for the fund, the old boys committed to mobilising funds for the construction of an international standard swimming pool and other infrastructural development projects at the institution.
"It is great for our alumni to visit and congratulate us for our results in last year's KCSE. We attained a mean of 9.9, which ensured we were number seven in the country," Mr. Rutere said.
He said the alumni's initiative to establish an endowment fund will go a long way in promoting the academic performance, especially because a large number of learners came from financially vulnerable families.
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"They (old boys) have brought us Sh2m which will be part of the seed capital for the project they want to start."
Mr. Rutere said, "They have projects which they have identified, the most important being the endowment fund, so that no child enrolled at Meru School will be sent home for lack of fees. That does not mean parents will not pay fees. There will be a process of identifying the most vulnerable to benefit from the fund."
He also welcomed the alumni's swimming pool project, which Gideon Kimathi, the Chief of Protocol in Deputy President Kithure Kindiki's office, said, will enhance the competence -based education at the institution.
"We have come back as old boys to inspire and mentor current students. The school did very well last year with a lot of As, and we felt proud, so we decided to come back and reward the teachers and non-teaching staff," Mr. Kimathi, a former Meru assembly deputy speaker and who left the school in 1999, said.
He said that as professionals in the public and private sectors, they aim to 'give back' to the school that moulded them into what they became.
"As an alumni association, we want to contribute to Infrastructure development and provide serious mentorship. We want to launch a scholarship programme and also mobilize resources for the construction of an Olympic -standard swimming pool," Kimathi added.
Prof Kaimenyi, a former Education and Land Cabinet Secretary in former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration, heaped the alumni for the initiative that will see the development of infrastructure and promote transition to university.
"This institution has, over the years, produced some of the best minds in the country. We have produced a Vice President (Kalonzo Musyoka), Attorney General (Githu Muigai), several cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries, Vice Chancellors and DVCs, professors, just to name a few," he said.
He said by old boys partnering with the school to promote education, the institution can only do better in producing successful people.
"The partnership of this school and stakeholders, chief among them the old boys, is very vital. Your mentorship, guidance through career talks, scholarships, and infrastructural development play a crucial role in shaping the future of our students," Kaimenyi noted.
In last year's KCSE, the school had 69 A plain, 136 A minuses, 153 B pluses, 157 B plain, and 49 B minuses.