Kenya’s star student breaks into top accounting career

Ms Ongore knows well that her achievement is not a common thing among people of her age, but is not ready to shy off bargaining for equal opportunities at the work place.

“I schooled fast because I was determined to work hard, I was ambitious and I had the opportunity,” she said of her success.

Clear goal

Her goal was clear right from early school days; to become a reputable lawyer and this explains why she was keen to nurture her dream to reality from high school through university education.

Thanks to a partial scholarship that was given to her as a reward for excellent performance in a foundation course which she did at Brookhouse School, Ms Ongore found her way into Leeds University where she studied law.

“I performed very well in the test and emerged the best student.

This earned me a partial scholarship for my studies at Brookhouse School and partial university scholarship based on the grades I would score from the foundation programme,” she said. During the programme, students are not only exposed to wide subject learning but also benefit from study opportunities presented through the programme and close career advice.

Brookhouse has a partnership with the Northern Consortium of UK Universities, a group to which University of Leeds belongs.
The partnership makes it easy for students who have attained good grades from the foundation program to apply for courses in any of the universities and for the lucky few, study scholarships make the process even easier.

During the foundation programme, learners are allowed to choose combinations of subjects that match to their preferred careers hence Ms Ongore chose arts.

Her first degree at Leeds University cost between Sh1.2 million and Sh1.3 million annually for the three year course. The masters degree takes a year and costs Sh1.8 million in tuition fees.

Tax law is not a subject that has caught the attention of many local legal practitioners. This, according to Ms Ongore is the reason she chose law.

“Not many lawyers specialise in tax law in Kenya. I want to get experience in tax first then I go into practice,” she said.
The graduate trainee programme through which she is joining KPMG will last three years after which she becomes a tax consultant.

Emerging hub

Ms Ongore is keeping a keen eye on Kenya which she describes as an emerging financial hub.

She sees the expansion of multinationals to Kenya as a move that will lead to demand of services from international tax law experts. Trade levels too are expected to go up as a result meaning extra demand for law experts who address needs of business people.
At Queen Mary University of London where she studied for her masters, emphasis was on study of multinationals and governments and international tax treaties.

If her dream of practising in Kenya comes to reality, this is the knowledge she will be banking on to push her career forward as there are not many tax law specialists to source experience from.

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