From herder to scholar: Wonder as farmhand earns second PhD

Sometime in 1984, a skinny boy from Katilia, Turkana East arrived in Soy, Uasin Gishu County to herd cows for school fees and food.

Before that, the 12-year-old had been herding camels and goats in the banditry-prone area. Relief food, mostly yellow maize, was becoming scarce and wild fruits were their only hope.

On Thursday, 40 years later, Daniel Ing’ollan Nawose graduated with his second Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from Moi University, becoming the first scholar from Turkana County to achieve such a distinction in academia.

He is now among a select few Kenyans with such an impressive academic CVs. Nawose’s journey to the pinnacle of academia was punctuated with tough challenges.

Being raised by a widow made Nowose’s struggle even harder as he fought to survive in an area ravaged by perennial droughts and banditry, while also overcoming child labour and numerous other vulnerabilities in Katilia, a region feared for frequent attacks.

Moments after earning his second PhD, Nawose reflected on his journey, from  herding livestock to serving in the military, and ultimately becoming the first from his community to achieve the rare feat of two topmost degrees.

“My father died when I was young and I began herding other people’s livestock to feed myself and my siblings,” Nawose says.

He remembers how he unexpectedly ended up at Katilia Primary school in 1980. Before then, attending school had never crossed his mind; getting one meal a day was his main concern.

He went on to attend Katilia Primary School and later joined Lokitaung Secondary.

“In 1980, alongside my younger brother, we were walking home to meet our mother after several days of taking care of camels. However, my brother had a nose bleed near the school, and a cleric who saw me asked some schoolboys who were playing nearby to take me to school. That’s how I started school,” he says.

He had to balance herding and schooling, passing his examinations and enrolling in Lokitaung Secondary School before joining the military as a cadet officer in 1992 and graduating in 1993. He was posted to 15 Kenya Rivals in Mombasa, where he worked for two years before being transferred to Kahawa Barracks in Nairobi.

“I served in the military for 11 years and 300 days. In 2004 I resigned to return to school. I immediately enrolled at Moi University completing my undergraduate degree in Education Arts in 2007 and later pursued a masters degree (in education), which I completed in 2011,” he says.

“I later received a scholarship to pursue a PhD in France and graduated in 2018. Driven by my ambitions in academia, I began a second PhD in 2020.”

He does not regret leaving the military, as he believes the force prepared him for life.

After deciding to go to school, Nawose attended for the first and second terms. However, his elder brother was unable to support him during the second term, as the April holidays were too short for him to earn enough money.

In 1984, while in Standard Five, his family’s situation worsened, making it difficult to find food and money to fund his education. Nawose decided to travel all the way to Soy in Uasin Gishu county, where a family employed him as a herder.

While herding cows, Nawose discovered that the family that employed him had children attending school.

“I had always thought that families that employed boys to herd their livestock had no children. I was shocked to discover that the family that hired me in Soy had children. I asked (my employer) why I was being asked to herd cows while their children were going to school. My employer told me that I was not their child but a worker. I was irked that I was wasting my life,” he says.

He recalls an evening when his employer asked one of his daughters a question about the longest river in Africa, but the girl couldn’t answer.

“When she failed to answer, I answered it correctly. The employer became angry with his daughter and wondered why his herder was outsmarting his daughter. He asked if I had been to school before, and I told him I was out of school because my family couldn’t afford the fees. That’s when I realised I was knowledgeable and was wasting my time herding livestock."

“I decided to abruptly return to Turkana to continue my education. I didn’t even wait for the employer to pay me,” he recalls.

Pursuing a second PhD on Religious Studies Education, he says, was motivated by his desire to role-model for people back and inspire them to overcome challenges and pursue education.

Nawose says the turbulence at Moi University did not bog him down. “I’m happy because I am the only one from my county to complete two PhDs. I hope to motivate others to follow in my footsteps.”

His wife, Rebecca Amimlim, says she is proud of her husband’s achievement. “He faced financial challenges, and I kept encouraging him to pursue the second PhD. I will motivate him to go for the third one if he wishes.”

Nawose’s mother, Mary Apungure, back in Turkana, said she was elated and looking forward to giving her son a heroic welcome at home. His celebrations in Eldoret were graced by former Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro.