By Gilbert Kobi
Kitutu Masaba MP Hon. Clive Ombane Gisairo has reiterated that he will prioritize the NGCDF funds towards bursaries despite sluggish disbursement of monies from the Treasury, adding that education is the cornerstone of equity in all aspects of the economy.
Speaking recently in his constituency, Gisario said his administration is committed to serve the people with fairness, transparency and accountability, noting that he is always available for consultation whenever needed.
“We are giving the maximum percentage (35% of Kshs151M) as provided in the law which translates to Kshs 53 million towards education,” he said, adding; “The Treasury has only given Kshs 43 million and of this, only Kshs 14 million is meant for bursaries. But given the demand, we have requested them to allow us to disburse this money for students suffering out there.”
Kitutu Masaba NG-CDF, he said, will cater for tertiary institutions and students in Form Three and Four while county bursaries under MCAs will be available for students in Form One and those in Form Two. This is the first time in as many years Kitutu Masaba NG-CDF is disbursing bursaries to students in secondary schools.
According to him, of the Kshs 53 million available for bursaries, Kshs25M will be disbursed to tertiary institutions while the remainder [Ksh 28M] will cover for students in Form Three and Four.
“MCAs are given about 1200 forms for secondary schools which are inadequate given that students in secondary schools per ward could be about 3,500. This would basically create havoc and this informs our decision to collaborate. We want every needy student to be reached,” he said, adding that; “when money goes to local secondary schools, you will even expect the economy of our constituency to boom.”
Already, Form Fours have picked bursary forms which are being processed. On Wednesday [yesterday], bursaries for Form One to Form Three will be issued jointly at location level by teams from NG-CDF and MCAs offices, with parents required to comply with requirements.
Bursaries for tertiary institutions, he said, have already been processed and will be disbursed to various institutions as of Friday this week. Of the 7,000 applicants, the MP revealed, only 3,815 students qualified and will be sharing a total of Kshs 25 million. A good number of forms were returned blank while others missed critical documents required for scrutiny, significantly affecting the number of qualified students.
“It is quite appalling that quite a good number of these students are registered voters outside the constituency and for fairness, they should benefit from their area of voting. Resources are distributed based on the number of voters and we must strictly adhere to this,” he said.
Students in tertiary institutions who are registered voters in Kitutu Masaba automatically qualify along with those considered as minors having not processed their ID cards. For those aged 21 and below, their fate relied on their parents’ registration status. Those aged 22 and above are considered as adults. In secondary schools, registration status of parents will be considered [either or both parents must be registered voters of Kitutu Masaba].
The MP further said the Education Committee is pushing to have qualified primary school teachers absorbed in Junior Secondary Schools [JSS] to help the country smoothly transition to CBC. He also pledged to work with all institutions for the sake of development.
