Khalwale Returns To Viral Tradition, Celebrates Daughter's 2023 KCSE Results

Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale on Monday, January 8 celebrated the results of one of his children in the just-released Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results, going back to the trend that Kenyans have attributed him to any time the results of the national examinations are announced.

In a statement on X, Khalwale congratulated his daughter, Gift Atubukha Khalwale, who scored a mean grade of B+.

"Congratulations, Gift Atubukha Khalwale! I want to thank my family, the entire St Brigids High School-Kiminini fraternity, and above all, God for supporting my little Tubu to this milestone," he wrote.

As broken down, Gift scored a mean grade of B+(plus) scoring a B Plain in English, a B Plain in Kiswahili, a B minus in Mathematics, and a B Plain in Biology.

Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale's daughter, Gift. /BONI KHALWALE

In Physics, she scored a C plain, Chemistry B+ (plus), History and Government A plain, and Christian Religious Education (CRE) A- (minus).

The trend that Kenyans on social media knew Khalwale of notably went AWOL (absent without leave) in the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results release, having known to be at least among the first legislators to congratulate a member of his family every time national exam results are released.

Simply put, Khalwale almost always had a candidate in his household sitting the national exams over the past few years.

For the 2023 KCPE edition, the Senator kept off the topic of the day and concentrated on sharing how he was picked to chair the Senate Committee hearing the impeachment of Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza.

However, Kenyans in their usual not-minding-your-business characteristics, kept pressuring Khalwale to celebrate one of his children.

"How is (the) performance of your sons and daughters mhesh?" One follower asked.

More and more inquiries followed, prompting the Senator to make another post, this time around just a dot (.). This triggered more questions from curious Kenyans who demanded that he congratulate someone.

"Mkuu leo hauna (today you don't have a) candidate?" One Kenyan asked.

Others even went on to congratulate him and his sons and daughters in advance even as the results were trickling in.

"Congratulations to your 3 daughters and your 2 sons for the exemplary performance in the just released KCPE results," another Kenyan said.

"Congratulations to Boni Khalwale's grade six and class 8 son or daughter. Our bullfighter," another added.

Khalwale, however, ignored all these concerns and went ahead to make another post where he listed some of the achievements he has made since he was elected as Kakamega Senator.

His last congratulatory message came on March 28, 2022, after one of his daughters, Melissa Khamwenyi, was impressed by scoring 402 marks out of 500 in the KCPE 2021 exams. She scored a mean grade of 80.4 per cent, registering four straight As and one B on the five-subject test.

"Melissa Khamwenyi Khalwale INDEX: 37615027005 English - 86(A), Kiswahili - 83(A), Mathematics - 83(A), Science - 66(B), Social Studies and Religious Education - 84(A). Total 402," he shared the message of her results.

"My family and I, in 1,000 special ways thank God, the teaching and non-teaching staff of Malinya Primary School and Kakamega Hill Junior School for the 402!"

Melissa beat her sister, Gift, who scored 396 marks in the 2019 KCPE exam. Among his other top-performing offspring include, Linda Khalwale, who was among the top candidates with 428 marks in KCPE 2014.

In 2016, the former Senator celebrated his son, Engine Kukaste Khalwale's KCPE performance after he scored 400 marks, which saw him join Alliance High School.  

Khalwale was back to celebrate his children in 2017. He publicly congratulated his daughter Flava and son Steve for scoring 407 and 406 marks respectively in the exam that saw them transition to national schools.

This year, out of the 899,453 candidates who sat the 2023 KCSE Examination, 450,554 were male, while 448,899 were female, representing 50.09% and 49.91% of the total candidature respectively.