By Boniface Mulu
576 Form One students from Kitui County have benefited from the Equity Bank’s Wings to Fly scholarship programme.
Equity Bank Kitui Branch Manager Francis Mbindyo disclosed that they selected the beneficiaries out of a total of 1,000 applicants from the entire county.
He urged other stakeholders to continue assisting the needy children in our locality and revealed that Equity Bank Kitui Branch planted a total of 30,000 trees in Kitui region last year through its environmental conservation programme.
Kitui Central District Officer Maingi William was the chief guest at the function where he represented the County Commissioner Thomas Sankei thanked Equity Bank for the initiative in Kitui County.
He warned the parents and guardians who will fail to take their children to school that they will be arrested and prosecuted. He also announced that they had attained 100 per cent transition in Kitui County.
He added that they had put in place measures to deal with defilement cases in the region.
Wings to Fly Scholarship Programme Kitui Branch Selection Board Chairman Ken Katua asked the beneficiaries to work very hard as the appreciation.
Kitui High School Deputy Principal Festus Mutuku told the students that success comes with discipline and asked them to choose good friends.
The event was also addressed by the Kitui Catholic Diocesan Education Secretary Reverend Father Julius Muthamba and the National Youth Council (NYC) Kitui County Chairman Aggrey Nzomo among others.
The Wings to Fly Scholarship Programme is sponsored by MasterCard Foundation and the Equity Bank Foundation while Elimu Scholarship Programme is a flagship programme sponsored by the World Bank and the Kenya’s Education Ministry and is implemented through the Equity Bank Foundation.
The Wings to Fly Scholarship Programme was incepted in Kenya in 2008 and in Kitui County in 2010. The programme provides tuition fees, accommodation, stationery, transport, pocket money and uniforms to the beneficiaries.
Nairobi county is the programme’s largest beneficiary in the country followed by Kakamega and Kitui Counties respectively.
10,705 out of 114,000 applicants benefited from the programme this year.
