County Govts to fight for bursary funds, Governor Barasa reveals

Despite the court ruling to have county bursaries attached to the national government starting next year, counties have vowed to challenge the decision and have their allocation as well.

This is according to the chairman of the Finance Committee at the Council of Governors (CoG) and Kakamega governor Fernandez Barasa.

The governor, while speaking in Malava during the flagging off ceremony of county medical supplies, announced that County Governments will also challenge the decision twith a view that they also be allocated the funds.

He said the funds are critical in supporting vulnerable learners who are not identified and captured by the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) database.

“We have quite a number of needy and vulnerable learners who miss out on the national allocation and approach the counties for assistance over the same and it will be well if we are also allocated some funds to cater for their bursaries too, considering that already the MPs have enough for the same. This national cake is big enough for both the national and county governments to share and should not be only awarded to them,” he observed.

 He said through the courts the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o, has allowed the counties to only disburse this year’s bursary with next year the exercise being taken over by the MPs.

 He said the directive will see them start disbursing county bursaries this May as they look forward to presenting their plea through the courts to have their grievances listened and determined.

He called on the learners from the county aspiring to join universities and who will miss the bursary to make use of the Ksh.40 Million scholarship programme through the partnership between his county and Access Kenya.

“We have collaborated with Access Kenya to give out loans to those learners joining universities from this county and they can apply through their respective ward administrators, we are doing this because we are committed to matters education as it is one of my key pillars in my manifesto” he assured. 

Further responding on the construction of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centres within the county, Barasa called on the contractors to ensure that their works in the centers is complete by the end of June this year to allow learning activities to go on smoothly.

He called on MCAs to oversight the projects in their various wards.

On supporting county polytechnics, the leadership said it will continue to support their operations as part of their education and training priorities.

He urged many young people who need technical skills to join these institutions for them to be able to get skills that will propel them into competitiveness in the job market.

“Kenya is in need of technical knowhow and that is why even the national government is investing heavily in technical trainings and as a county we are also following suit to create our own employment database instead of outsourcing from outside,” he concluded.