“I Got Pregnant When I Was 13 Years Old But I Did Not Give Up in Life- Janet Jepleting Narrates
Janet Jepleting, 30 years a mother of one has gotten admission to
the University of Pepperdine in USA to pursue a master’s in public policy after a rocky educational background.
Jepleting was born in Kilibwoni village, Mosop Constituency in Nandi count, and brought up by her mother and stepdad before she moved to her grandmother’s place due to harassment and mistreatment from her foster father.
Her life became more miserable and darker at the age of 11years as her grandmother died and so she had no place to go other than to move from one relative to the other and got pregnant at the age of 13 after her KCPE exams
” Unfortunately my grandmother passed away and I moved from one relative to the other where I got pregnant after my KCPE. My relatives wanted me to get married,” Jepleting said.
She is optimistic that she will go back to school so she had to work as house help in order to raise funds for her own school fees .
Jepleting worked for 2 years where she managed to get little money that enabled her to buy only the small requirements but no penny for tuition fees.
She thereafter Stephen Kosiany High school in Mosop constituency after she told the principal Stephen kositany that she will be walking during holidays to raise money for school fees.
“During that incident, I ended up working as a house help because my intentions were to go back to school, so I was trying to look for means to raise school fees.” She said.
During holidays when she was in high school Jepleting used to work as a maid and also a cleaner in referral in order to raise her tuition fee as the county development fund (CDF) support was not enough.
She visited her area member of parliament (MP) then Elijah Lagat for help during school days as she used to be sent home frequently.
She almost dropped out of school in from 3 due to huge school fees areas and there was a new principal in school who didn’t understand her background .she had no other option other than to go home but at home, no one was there.
”I had no option, I went home but my mom was not there and she had no phone probably she fought with my father because my father was an alcoholic and sometimes very violent,” she lamented.
She went to her former boss was working for her during the school holidays and requested some money for school fees so that she could refund by working and luckily she was given Ksh 15, 000 and she went back to school.
She moved to Nairobi after a lady tries to marry her off .she was stranded in Nairobi for a period of two weeks before she met a well-wisher who paid her college tuition fee after a background check to pursue a Diploma in law at Nairobi Institute Of Business Studies.
She later joined the Catholic university in Nairobi to pursue a bachelor’s degree in political science, but she was also not able to finance her own academics so she had to differ for one academic year and came back and had to lie to the finance office for her to be admitted so as not to differ for the 2nd time.
While in student fellowship at all saints cathedral Nairobi in the evening she met a woman identified as valentine Gitoho who gave her an email and told her to write for her. Gotoho wrote a cheque of ksh200, 000 to the school and Jepleting graduated in 2018.
On graduating Jepleting opted to further her education, so she applied to some universities in the united kingdom(UK) where she got admission to the University of Sussex but she never reported to the institution due to financial constraints as the Harambee she had organized also didn’t go well also the COVID 19 pandemic contributed.
she gave up not, in 2021 she applied to other universities in USA where she got admission to the University of Pepperdine in California USA where she will pursue a master’s program in public policy, she also got a scholarship of $13,000 per year from the university and there was an increase I the scholarship to $27000 per year after she wrote to the school requesting for an increment.
“Life is not easy, nothing comes easy, we have challenges in life, sometimes you knock on this door for help, some people believe In you some don’t, some people trust you some criticizes you when they criticize you don’t give, use the criticism as strength,” Janet advised, “don’t bother what people say about you, don’t bother when some people don’t trust you, don’t bother when some people don’t believe in your dreams, what matters is what you believe yourself. “She added. Every person should focus and work for his or her dreams and ambitions despite the challenges of life.
By: Kipchumba Nickson
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