Free KCSE composition – sample

Question: Write a composition ending with:

If I had a second chance, I would be wiser.

Approaching the End

The doctor is a cleanly-shaven man of medium height and good looks. He is in a sparkling white coat with a stethoscope hanging professionally around his neck. He is flanked by two familiar nurses in starched white dresses and tiny hats on their heads.

The nurses are Jane and Janet. They are in charge of HDU ward 7, the place I have called home-sweet-home since I was admitted in this hospital six months ago. It is probably the same place I will die. I have thoroughly lost hope of ever setting foot out of this place.

I am on a hospital bed with every imaginable medical machine mounted around me. There is an IV drip stand above my head with a clear tube leading to my right wrist. The little table in front of me is always packed with injectable drugs.

The doctor nears my bed. He peruses through the red file on the table. It has all my medical records since I was admitted here. He issues a number of instructions to the nurses. Maybe asking them to double my dosage for I have not been responding well to the ARVs they have been administering of late.

I think I admire doctors, especially their determination. They still are convinced that I can be saved. In my next life, I would like to be a doctor, if my opinion counts there and if there are doctors there.

The doctor turns, looks at me and smiles with his eyes. He is a kind man, I can tell. But in my case, I do not even think I deserve it.

‘You will be fine, Juma,’ he says.

Then the sadness gushes back. My mother will be visiting soon. She has never missed to visit for one single day for the six months. What a loving woman. Yesterday she broke down and cried. She said a touching prayer for me and left. I wish I could just stop her from coming. I feel so guilty for causing her all this grief. I had been an ungrateful only son.

It is almost hard to believe that a year before I was a perfectly healthy and employed person with the whole world before me. Right now, I am a shrivelled patient on my deathbed. Soon I will be joining the statistics of millions of AIDS victims.

Soon my life will come to a premature halt. I will be forgotten. I cannot say that I do not regret my mistakes. There are things I would have changed if I had the power. If I had a second chance, I would be wiser.