Emuhaya Member of Parliament Omboko Milemba has backed calls to consolidate Kenya’s fragmented education bursary system into a single national fund, arguing the move would expand access to learning for disadvantaged students and unlock resources to address other urgent needs in the education sector.
Speaking on a local television station on Tuesday, Milemba said the country was losing potential through a scattered funding model that allowed duplication of awards while leaving many needy students without support.
“There are monies given by Members of Parliament like myself, others given by governors and there is also the presidential scholarship. If we merged all these monies, will we not employ these teachers without any pain?” he said.
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Milemba, who also chairs the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), proposed that savings from a consolidated fund could be redirected to address the crisis facing 44,000 junior school intern teachers, whose contracts were cancelled last month after the Court of Appeal declared the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) internship programme unconstitutional. The court ruled on February 27, 2026 that hiring trained and registered teachers as interns on lower pay amounted to unfair labour practice.
He also called for an audit of the Ksh702.7 billion allocated to the education sector in the 2025/26 financial year, arguing that some departments had been unable to fully utilise their allocations.
Milemba downplayed concerns that MPs would resist giving up control of bursary funds, saying Parliament had already taken steps toward consolidation. A motion on the matter passed unopposed in the National Assembly, leading to the formation of a 17-member ad hoc committee of which he is a member. The committee was given 90 days to propose legislation establishing a unified framework for funding basic, university and tertiary education.
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He said the next step was for the committee to be reconvened to move the process forward, adding that a centralised fund managed by the Ministry of Education (MoE) would reduce bureaucratic constraints and improve transparency in disbursement.
The calls come amid long-standing criticism of Kenya’s bursary system, which draws from multiple sources, including the NG-CDF, county governments and individual legislators, a structure that critics say has led to some students receiving multiple awards while others receive nothing.
By Benedict Aoya
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