From classroom to Cabinet

Minister for Water and Environment Sam Mangusho Cheptoris (centre) at his thanksgiving ceremony in Kapchorwa District last weekend. PHOTO BY JOYCE CHEMITAI 

Academician, businessman, politician, leader. Sam Mangusho Cheptoris combines all those attributes. However, brutal but honest are the three words that best describe the Kapchorwa Municipality MP and also minister for Water and Environment. And at his thanksgiving last weekend, Fr Godfrey Okello described him as resilient, determined and candid.

Born on December 12, 1949, in present day Kapchorwa District, the towering and imposing man has an equally towering story; one cobbled by sheer hard work and ambition from grass to grace.

Little is said about his early childhood, which was characterised by struggles faced by a typical African child. The larger part of Cheptoris’ story starts from the moment he graduated from the University of Nairobi with a degree in Literature.

Climbed up the ladder from scratch
The Nabumali High School and Nairobi University educated academician-cum-politician has climbed up the ladder, according to his elder brother and former minister of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries in the 1987 National Resistance Council Prof Sheme Chemangey Masaba.

“I am 10 years older than him. So I saw him grow up and know his story very well…” he said at the thanksgiving ceremony last weekend.

Cheptoris’ career stretches back to 1975 when after Nairobi University, he started to teach Literature and English Language at Sebei College, Tegeres. Two years later, he went to Makerere University for a postgraduate diploma in Education. This saw him rise to deputy head teacher when he returned to Sebei College, where he served until 1981.

In 1982, he was appointed acting head teacher, but only served for one year before going back to Makerere University to pursue a master’s degree in Education. While still at school, he was transferred to Comboni College in Lira as deputy head teacher.

In 1986, the call came; he was needed back home in Gamatui Girls Secondary School as head teacher.
A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, the saying goes. The posting came with its blessings and hurdles brought about by the poor roads and bad terrain to the school.

At Gamatui, Joyce Chemitai, a journalist who studied there under his regime says, Cheptoris endeared students by calling them “My Girls”.

“He would, while addressing the assembly, ask what his girls wanted to have for the weekend. Whether they wanted to eat beef, dance or whatever sort of entertainment they so wished to have,” she says.

At the recent invitation for the thanksgiving, he stressed that My Girls have to attend the function, much to the chagrin of naysayers who expected the minister to say ‘my daughters’. Very few knew where the My Girls phrase was coming from.

However, the carrot would only end at that. On a Monday, his colours changed. He barely wore a smile when it came to matters of academics.

At his village in Kapteret, the new job soon got him the name headmaster. He would ride his motorcycle at weekends to the local drinking joints, share stories with the locals before taking the long tedious ride to Gamatui.

“He bought a motorcycle while head teacher. He would tie his briefcase on the carrier and ride through the rough terrain to Gamatui. We would see him every week ride past our school Sebei College,” an employee of Kapchorwa local government says.

Meanwhile, his business abilities began to manifest. He started trading in timber in a bid to boost his income. The eucalyptus trees in his sub-county fell, but he also planted them in plenty, emphasising the tree-planting drive among students even in his next posting in Sebei College.
He served in Gamatui until 1998 when bigger things came knocking. His students had been excelling, after all.