With the cost of quality education out of reach for most Kenyans, each year, thousands of eager students fall off the education ladder for lack of fees.
There have been decent efforts such as education bursaries supported by the Constituency Development Fund, to ensure that no needly child misses an opportunity at an education. But the importance of the bursaries has been questioned due to claims of corruption.
A Member of County Assembly in Elgeyo-Marakwet county has shocked many people after she listed her daughter as an orphan in the bid to secure bursary money for her. The embattled MCA registered her first born daughter as a bright and needy orphan who needs support to pursue her education.
Nominated MCA Emily Kiprop doctored the application form and secured Sh80,000 bursary money for her daughter who is a student at Moi University in Eldoret.
According to the last week the review of Sambirir Ward bursary for the month of June 2018. The MCA’s daughter according to the review, received the highest allocation a single student got in the Ward.
The daughter obtained the bursary after the MCA framed the application in order to justify the allocation which selfishly left out more deserving needy applicants. ” This is a bad indicator of a leader and contravenes Chapter Six of the constitution of Kenya 2010,”said Pius Kibet, a resident of Sambirir Ward.
However In her defence, the unapologetic politician whose husband is an accountant said there was no guideline on who should receive bursary funding. “Yes that is my daughter. In any case bursaries are usually meant for who? Is there a guideline that bars any MCA’s child from getting bursary?” she posed.
She added: “Do you know the source of the bursary fund in question that you are talking about?”Mind you, this is not the first time I am being told about this bursary that my daughter got. It appears there is politics involved and some people seem to be so idle to an extent of taking to the media to malign me,” she said.
The civil society was up in arms against the MCA and called on her to resign following her tainted integrity. “That’s gross misconduct and abuse of office by someone in leadership to allocate herself bursary. It is so selfish of her to allocate herself all the allocation,” said Wilfred Kihara, chairman of civil society, Iten chapter.
Should bursaries be allocated only to the need students?