With schools opening this week, parents from Kajiado County are up in arms against their Governor over the manner in which his administration is handling bursaries for needy students. Angry parents are now demanding accountability for the kitty which they now claim has not been addressed in a transparent manner. They claim the bursary scheme is being used to reward political loyalty at the expense of needy students.
Parents were reacting to a report by the Auditor General for the year ending 30th June, 2021where the Governor appointed his cronies to the fund. According to the report, the appointment of Ward Committee Members was contrary to Section 7 of the Kajiado County Bursary Grants and Scholarship Fund Bill, 2015 which requires a committee member to have at least a primary education certificate with at least 5 years of experience in community affairs, meet the requirements of Chapter six of the Kenyan Constitution and be a resident of the Ward for at least five years.
Most of the committee members did not have the required educational qualification, work experience and duration of residence in the Ward. In the circumstances, the Fund Management was in breach of the law. The report further reveals that there has been a lack of equitable distribution of bursary contrary to Section 10(1) of the Kajiado County Bursary Grants and Scholarship Fund Bill, 2015, which requires a bursary Report of the Auditor-General on Kajiado County Education Bursary, Grants and Scholarship Fund to be fair, equitably distributed in all parts of the wards, inclusive and non-discriminatory, involve public participation, accountable and transparent and efficient in disbursement.
Further, the applicant’s review of records provided for audit revealed that bursary payments of Ksh. 748,000 were disbursed to students without school admission/registration numbers. This is contrary to Section 12 of the Fund Bill, 2015, which requires the Committee to verify all the information provided by the applicants through the physical visit of the residence, request for additional information, invitation of applicants to appear in person before the Committee and any other applicable method of verification. In the circumstances, the Fund Management was in breach of the law.
