Kipchebor MCA Erick Bett, who is also the Kericho County Assembly Deputy Speaker, has called for the harmonization of the various bursary schemes into one central disbursing kitty.
He regretted that the duplication of the funds had caused a lot of disharmony and had resulted in several needy students either missing out or getting double funding to the detriment of others.
“As a representative, I have on various occasions come across instances where some students are given double or triple bursaries while in the same vein, you get very needy students missing out completely. To me this can be avoided and that is why I call for efforts to be made to correct such anomalies through harmonization of the schemes,” he said.
The MCA said the funds from the county and the national governments and those distributed by the office of the Woman Representative should be managed under one central organization that will curb the discrepancies.
Bett said he will lead efforts, both in the local assembly and outside, to harmonize the funds which in the long run will be managed effectively.
His remarks come at a time Governor Eric Mutai launched a bursary worth Ksh167 million and the county MP gave out Ksh3.8 million separately.
These were in addition to the NGCDF bursaries and other educational funds from Equity Bank, KCB Foundation and those from multinationals like James Finlays Trust and Ekaterra.
Each entity distributes on its own, hence lack of proper coordination.
Currently though, the Ministry of Education is pushing for the enactment of the Basic Education Scholarships and Bursaries Bill, 2024, which will centralize the issuance of all bursaries to avoid current duplication.
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By Benedict Ng’etich
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