Teacher Tabichi: How I will spend Ksh.100M Prize money

Kenyan teacher Peter Mokaya Tabichi has become a national hero after recently bagging the 2019 Global Teacher Prize that brought with it $1 million (Ksh.100 million) in winnings.

Netizens have since come out in droves to try to do calculations on how the 36-year-old will spend the money but none of it made sense.

The educator, however, on Wednesday evening came out to explain how he will spend the Ksh.100 million prize money.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s Jeff Koinange Live show on Wednesday, Mr. Tabichi revealed that most of the money will go towards donations to the education sector.

According to the Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School teacher, his students as well as his community and his fellow teaching fraternity deserve the win as much as he does.

“So are you going to donate more of the money?” Posed Jeff Koinange, to which he responded saying: “Yes. Because they (students, teachers and community) are the ones who have won, they’re the ones who will deserve it.”

Mr. Tabichi stated that he was inspired to submit an application for the award by the late environmental conservationist and Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai who won a lot of global recognition during his heydays and continues to do so even in death.

While submitting his application, however, Tabichi said “at the back of my mind, money was not what was there. I knew that I’ll just participate and experience and explore.”

The Physics and Mathematics teacher credited his recent achievement to his father – Lawrence Tabichi – who was also a teacher and whom he termed as a strict man who remains strong even in old age.

“He was energetic, and even now he is still energetic,” said Tabichi of his 67-year-old father.

The senior Tabichi, also speaking during the interview, commended his son for achieving what even he initially thought was impossible since – out of the ten finalists — he was the only African teacher.

According to Lawrence Tabichi, Peter started showing his talents even at the early age of 7, adding that he at one point thought his son would become an electrician given his teenage tendency of fixing malfunctioned electronics.