By Steve Muthini
Machakos Town Member of Parliament Victor Munyaka has defended his allocation of Sh2,000 bursary per student regardless of how needy the students are.
The MP said his office received over 20,000 bursary applications against a Sh45 million budgetary allocation for bursaries and thus, was not possible to give applicants a higher amount as the funds were limited.
All bursary applicants in the constituency received a flat rate of Sh2,000, but there were a few exceptional cases.
Speaking at Katoloni where he met hundreds of applicants Mr. Munyaka said those who were promising to increase bursary allocation to Sh10,000 per student were being deceitful as that would mean only a few students would benefit.
Some of his political opponents have likened his token allocation of bursaries to petty cash for buying ‘Muguka’ saying it was not helpful to needy students.
The MP who is vying for re-election for the fourth time defended his move saying hundreds of students had so far benefited from his bursary allocation unlike the county government which has for years not allocated bursaries to needy students despite running a huge budget.
“Every constituency receives an allocation of Sh45 million for bursaries but we have 20,000 bursary applicants in our system and they all receive bursaries. We are the leading constituency in Kenya in terms of bursary allocation,” said Mr Munyaka.
Munyaka said he was vying for the fourth time because there was still much needed to be done in Machakos Town constituency especially in the education sector. He listed some of his successes for the past 14 years including building of 44 new Schools, connection of 85 per cent of the population to electricity and purchase of school buses.
The legislator who is a United Democratic Alliance member is facing challenge from Labour Cabinet Assistant Secretary Musyoka Kalla and Muvuti ward MCA Caleb Mule among other contestants.
