THE AVIATION DREAM
As fate would have it, Webster qualified and joined Mang’u High School in 1998 in Form 1, and selected aviation as one of his technical subjects.
“I chose to do three sciences, geography and aviation because they were what I needed for the job. Now that I had come this far, I wanted to follow this aviation dream and quench my thirst and that of those who believed in me,” he said.
In 2000, a Kenya Airways Airbus plane crashed in Abidjan. That crash was a blessing in disguise for Webster, who was thousands of miles away in Thika, Kenya. After the crash, the company (Kenya Airways) bought a replacement plane and invited students of aviation from high schools in Kenya for an experience flight.
“The teacher chose students based on their performance in the subject in the previous term. Some from the Aviation Club were also chosen. For me, I was chosen because I was a senior official in the club and also good in the subject,” he said.
“I remember the flight experience like yesterday. There we were, students from Mang’u, Alliance, Kabarak and Maseno, all joyous and jubilant. We took off from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, flew south to Tanzania, went round Mount Kilimanjaro, came back to the Kenyan Coast, did an approach, flying low enough to see the ground…then we flew along the Kenyan Coast to Malindi and returned to the JKIA,” he recounted.
“According to them, that was a short flight, but for us, it was a very long flight with indelible memories.”
As though nature was constellating to communicate a message and confirm his future, a year later, he had an almost similar experience. This time, Kenya Airways decided to do away with the France-manufactured Airbus fleet and introduced the American-made Boeing fleet. Once again, KQ invited students of aviation from select high schools and Webster was on the list.
“This experience was more exhilarating than the former one because we were treated as guests. The Minister of Transport and other…