Today, 11 years ago, Kimani Maruge stepped into a classroom for the first time at age 84, and Google is commemorating the historic day with its homepage doodle of January 12, 2015.
On January 12, 2004, Maruge enrolled in the first grade class at Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Eldoret, Kenya, making him the oldest person in the world to start primary education; a feat which was officially documented in the Guinness Book of World Records four months after.
Maruge’s enrolment was motivated by the Free Primary Education introduced by the Mwai Kibaki administration in 2003, reports Allfrica.com, but what really began his journey was his uncertainty
about his Christian beliefs and desire to smarten up his arithmetic acumen.
“People have been telling me things in the Bible, which I do not know if they are true,” Maruge said in 2004. “I want to read the Holy Book for myself and find out.” In a report on globalaging.com, Maruge said he believed he had been cheated for a long time about his earnings and he wanted to calculate his money.
Kimani Maruge died on August 14, 2009 having achieved what he called his lifelong dreams. He didn’t mind picking a world record along the way, and even 11 years later, a space on every PC screen worldwide.
The Google Doodle is an occasional stylization of the Google logo on its homepage to celebrate holidays, events, achievements and people.
Gbenga Onalaja contributed to this report.
