A brave and fearless lady who went viral in the internet after confronting Uasin Gishu county Senator Mandago, Governor Jonathan Bii, and his deputy John Barorot over the Finland and Canada scholarship scandal has come out to talk about the issue.
The lady identified as Mercy Tarus had an interview where she explained why she bitterly confronted the leaders.
“I was not being rude, I just wanted accountability from the leaders themselves. I wanted to look Barorot in the eye and have him tell us the truth,” she said.
She is now doing hairdressing and selling porridge after she failed to acquire the scholarship to Finland that was promised by the then governor Jackson Mandago who is now a senator.
“You can see where I am working, I do hairdressing, and on the weekends I sell porridge and mandazi. This is highway robbery,” she added.
The meeting was called by current governor Jonathan Bii who wanted a joint meeting between the students, their parents and the leaders to see the way forward after increasing agitation from the parents who need a refund of their money after the scholarship has failed.
Mandago had apparently lied to those affected that their students would get an opportunity to study in a university in Finland and Canada after they raised some money to pay for the visas and one accommodation. However, it turns out that it was not made clear the kind of partnership the county government of Uasin Gishu had with the said universities making some students fail to travel despite having paid.
Others who managed to travel were shocked after realizing the hardship they were facing in Finland as they were to pay for their own tuition fees as well as accommodation and other personal needs. This led to some students resorting to looking for part time jobs while others even got into depression and killed themselves. Finnish government even threatened to depot the students back.
