Gatundu South MP Gabriel Kagombe and his Juja counterpart George Koimburi have lauded President Ruto for signing into law a Bill that saw the bursary allocation from the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) kitty increased from 35 per cent to 40 per cent.
Speaking separately in their constituencies, the legislators pointed out that the new allocation will play a key role in ensuring continuity and completion of education by underprivileged learners in Kiambu County.
They averred that most parents, especially from the highly populated Mt. Kenya region, have been facing an uphill task in facilitating their children’s education adding that bursary allocation per child in the region has been too meagre.
They stated that while thousands of parents have been applying to get the educational aid, most of them end up getting nothing while others receive very little that cannot sustain their children’s education.
“There have been inequalities in bursary allocation whereby students from our region have been receiving as low as Ksh2,000 whereas in other areas students have been receiving full scholarships. The burden has always been shouldered by parents most of whom are peasant farmers or casual laborers in villages. This increment is a boost for them,” Kagombe said at Theta village.
Before the law was amended, allocations to bursary schemes under the fund could not amount to more than 35 per cent of total constituency NGCDF allocation in a financial year.
The additional funding, the MPs stated, will supplement the government’s efforts to reduce illiteracy by increasing access to education and improving transition rates from primary to secondary schools.
The legislators said that some schools had almost all students applying for the bursary fund which was usually not enough following overwhelming response from applicants adding that there have been calls to increase the limit amount to support teaching and learning activities.
“We have been receiving numerous applications by students who are in dire need of financial aid but we haven’t been allocating all of them the funds. We hope that the fund will be increased further in the recent future to enhance accessibility of education by majority of students who hail from humble backgrounds,” Koimburi said in Juja town.
The MP revealed that the Juja NGCDF will disburse about Ksh73.5 million worth of bursary funds amounting to Ksh8,000 per student.
“Each student will receive a bursary cheque worth Ksh8,000 and we hope that the money will reduce the burden shouldered by parents in paying school fees,” Koimburi said.
Under the new law, NGCDF will also cater for other social benefits such as school feeding programmes, particularly in drought-stricken areas where students drop out of school in search of food and water.
The new law also introduces a 3% allocation of the NGCDF to be used in paying for utilities, costs and maintenance of constituency digital hubs which are seen as key in enabling the youth to acquire technological skills.
Additionally, the new law allocates a maximum of 5% of the funds allocated per constituency to climate change mitigation activities including afforestation, re-afforestation, grassroot sensitization and tree seedling production.
Setting aside NGCDF funds for climate action is envisioned to play a critical role in preventing further extreme and devastating weather conditions.
By Kamau Njoroge
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