A total of 800 needy students in Naivasha Constituency have benefitted from Sh70 million bursaries from the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) disbursed on Tuesday.
Speaking when issuing the cheques at Maai – Mahiu on Tuesday, Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara lamented that the allocation is not enough, going by the thousands of applications arising from the harsh economic situation and the vast sub-county, and called on the National Treasury to consider enhancing the kitty in the future.
The Sh70 million bursary kitty will support over 800 students in the county across secondary day schools, boarding facilities, special needs schools, and tertiary institutions.
Kihara noted that the Naivasha population continues to increase, with the flower farms and fishing industry playing a key role in attracting workers. She said most of the students in the area were hit hard by last year’s devastating floods, which have made them solely depend on the bursary for their education.
The floods that heavily affected Kijabe town left 63 people dead and 112 people hospitalized. Over 300 people were confirmed dead in the floods around the country during that period, with over 200,000 families displaced in 33 affected counties.
Kihara also stated that the bursary funds, though inadequate, will be distributed to students across the eight wards with learners in Secondary Schools allocated Sh43 million to cater for Sh3,000 per student in Day schools and Sh5,000 for boarding facilities.
University and college students will receive Sh10,000 and 8,000 per student, respectively, as well as Sh12,000 per student in special schools.
The legislator said learning in public schools, which opened its doors for the first term last month, has been affected by the delayed release of capitation funds and appealed to the Treasury to ensure that this is done on time for the smooth running of these learning institutions.
However, the Ministry of Education last week reported that the Government had released the first batch of Sh19 billion for capitation. But education stakeholders have criticised the Government for the delayed release of capitation owed to schools, citing frustration among school heads.
The Ministry said the situation has been occasioned by a financial crisis within the Government. National Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mr. John Mbadi has assured the country of prompt release of the funds in the future.
Some of the parents who benefitted from sponsorship in Naivasha said the bursary kitty under the National Government Constituency Development Funds ( NG-CDF) has been a lifesaver to tens of families in the area who were affected by last year’s flooding and the prevailing harsh economic circumstances.
“The government should increase the bursary allocation to benefit more students in need and ensure the funding per student is increased too, from the current Sh3,000, in order to ease the burden on parents,” a section of parents said.
The Constituency Bursary Fund (CBF) was established in the 2003/2004 financial year with the objective of helping the vulnerable families to finance secondary education, hence reducing inequalities.
The bursary is a Government’s commitment to actualising the legal requirement of the constitution Article 53 (b) on access to free and compulsory education and Section 13(1) of the Children Act 2022.
All the 290 constituencies in the Country are allocated an equal amount of money. The bursary is administered at the constituency level through a committee known as the Presidential Bursary Sub-committee, which is a sub-committee of the Constituency Social Assistance Committee (CSAC). It receives, vets, and approves applicants. It also creates awareness of the bursary in the constituency. The area MP is the designated patron of the Committee.
The government started the School Fees Bursary for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in the 2006/2007 F/Y as a complementary service to support OVCs in Secondary Schools. It changed its name to Presidential Secondary School Bursary (PSSB) for OVCs in the 2013/14 financial year.
The NG-CDF allocation for the 2024/2025 financial year is Sh54.8 billion for all constituencies, a 2.3 per cent increase from the previous year, when the Treasury allocated the NG-CDF Sh53.5 billion.
Regulations spell out that intended beneficiaries must be from needy, vulnerable families and have poor parents living with disabilities or a chronic illness such as HIV/AIDS that have compromised their ability to meet financial obligations of their children. Students who have been neglected and abused can also benefit from this programme.
Apart from NG-CDF bursaries, there are various bursaries being administered in the country. Some of them include the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) fund, County Government Bursaries, the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), the Presidential Secondary School Bursary, the Kenya Institute of Social Work and Community Development (KISWCD), and the Presidential Bursary Scheme for Orphans and Vulnerable Students, among others.
This has made them prone to abuse, and stakeholders have been calling for harmonisation of these bursaries. They want all the data about the learners to be consolidated in a pool from where bursaries will be issued instead of having multiple sources to avoid duplication where some students are getting more than three bursaries while others miss out on the funding.
The Senate has been seeking to bar governors from managing the County Bursary kitty, which they say is being run illegally, and indeed there has been a row after the Controller of Budget (COB), Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o, flagged this bursary as illegal last month and ordered it stopped, pointing out that funding for primary, secondary, tertiary, and university education is not part of devolved functions for the counties.
The National Assembly too is pushing for the amalgamation and consolidation of all funds and bursaries supporting needy students to arrest an intensive funding crisis in higher learning institutions.
The proposed reforms currently being formulated by the National Assembly seek to consolidate the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and all funds, including scholarships and bursaries issued by Governors and legislators, in order to enhance efficiency and accountability.
By Mabel Keya Shikuku