The family of Rodgers Kipruto, the Kenyan student who took his own life in Finland, is in agony after authorities notified them to collect his body within 21 days, failure to which police would dispose of it according to Finnish laws.
It is a race against time as parents of the student, who was said to have been depressed, appeal to well-wishers to help raise Sh4 million needed to take his body back home for burial.
Kipruto was among 202 students from Uasin Gishu County who went to Finland on a study programme deal between the county government of Uasin Gishu and three universities that was later hit by controversy.
The students joined Laurea, Jyvaskylla, and Tampere universities in Finland after parents deposited money into an account run by the county, but months later, the institutions demanded payment of fees or the students would be deported.
A county assembly committee that investigated the scam recommended investigations into the management of the overseas education account for forgery, abuse of office, and lack of integrity.
Kipruto had been depressed and physically unwell since last October and complained about hardship in Finland after leaving Kenya on October 30, 2022. He was a student at Laurea University, studying for a degree in nursing after quitting his job as a nurse at a Nakuru Level Five Hospital.
Kipruto’s father, Mr Jonathan Kosgey, told Nation.Africa that the family was unable to bring back his body for burial and have organised a fundraiser on Friday.
“Ferrying the body requires up to Sh3 million and as the family, we had exhausted all the resources to send him to study in Finland. Now that he will be brought as cargo, the bill is humongous. We have also set up a Paybill number to assist us in raising the funds and also the burial cost. The Paybill number will be up by Tuesday this week,” he said.
“We have been notified within 21 days the body should have been flown or the Finnish authorities will dispose of it. All Kenyans of goodwill, we are pleading with you to help us give him a decent send-off after bringing the body back to Kenya,” he appealed.
A past photograph of the late Rodgers Kipruto, 28, who was a nursing student at Laurea University, Tikkurila Campus in Finland. He is reported to have died by suicide in Finland out of frustration.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group
Mr Kosgey said the Kenyan embassy in Finland has already reached out to the family and is aiding in addressing logistical issues to ensure the body is brought on time.
“We have relatives in Sweden who are now in Finland to assist us and already a post-mortem is under way and we are waiting for the report. As a family, we are optimistic we shall receive the body at JKIA because already the embassy in Finland has asked us (parents and another person) for details so that we will be the ones receiving the body in Nairobi,” he said.
The distraught father urged other parents whose children are still studying in Finland to get close to them to avert tragedies.
“We were seeking a better life for them but as it turns out our children are suffering in the foreign nation. Parents should monitor them and we hope a solution to the issues will be found in due course,” he said.
Mr Kosgey said the family has received an outpouring of tributes and condolences from Kenyans from all walks of life who have been streaming in to their Chirchir farm in Kesses, Uasin Gishu County.
Following the tragedy, leaders in Uasin Gishu continue to pile pressure on the administration to castigate the airlift programme, saying it has subjected the more than 200 students to untold suffering. They called for a solution to avert more loss of life.
“It is a very sad ending and an outcome that was never expected by any of the stakeholders, including Rogers himself. The political demagogues' unmeasured greed for the blood of an innocent flock eventually squeezed the life out of him. The deceit and manipulation were beyond his comprehension,” protested Kiprop Bundotich alias Buzeki, who unsuccessfully contested for the Uasin Gishu gubernatorial seat in the 2022 election.
He said the program was created as an impermeable storyline of education cum employment package that made the opportunity look like a journey to the land of milk and honey.
“The storyline was opaque and full of lies to some of us. Now that Rogers has died, on whose hands is his innocent blood? The profiteers of this corrupt scheme already spent the kickbacks they received from the money Rogers paid to travel to a fake Finland,” he said.
He said it was time the Finland story was exposed for the lie it has been for a long time so as to free students and parents from mental torment and the hidden struggles they are living with, many fearing to speak out.
“The government should expose this filth before we lose another youth. A commission of inquiry must be set up urgently. Drain the swamp,” charged Buzeki.
Revelations of Kenyan students depressed in Finland after being shortchanged in the controversial study programme hatched by the Uasin Gishu government have come to the fore following the death by suicide of one of them last week.
