The chair of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors David Ndii rattled Kenyans after he insinuated that the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) would not benefit the Kenya Kwanza government much.
Amid an uproar over the nomination of Chief Administrative Secretaries (CASs), Ndii clarified that salaries paid to the nominees accounted for less than 0.0075 per cent of the national wage bill.
However, a Kenyan argued that the money should be used to construct CBC classrooms instead.
"You have the audacity to make the money seem like it is nothing yet the Ksh450 million can be used to build 4,600 junior secondary school classrooms?" The tweep posed.
"And will the classrooms will campaign for us next elections?" Ndii responded rhetorically.
The online exchange elicited mixed reactions from citizens who expressed disbelief in both Ndii and the tweep. For some, the arithmetic in the classrooms did not add up.
"Ksh450 million cannot build 4600 classrooms; unless you want to claim a classroom is constructed using less than Ksh100,000. Even if you meant to say 450 classrooms, it is impossible to build a class at Ksh1 million," a tweep wrote.
On the flip side, those appalled by the high number of CASs insisted that by working with the Ksh1 million figure, the funds could be used to build more than 2,000 classrooms.
Activist Boniface Mwangi, who also jumped on Ndii's thread of rants, decried that the economic advisor was insulting Kenyans for demanding accountability from the government.
Ndii told off Azimio supporters of demonizing the Kenya Kwanza government as if they had not committed any wrongdoing themselves. Former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga sided with him.
"David is telling us all that there’s no lesser evil in our respective political leaderships. He is telling us how the politics of division works. David doesn’t insult. He gives you honest feedback which could at times reflect his intellectual arrogance," Mutunga remarked.
Meanwhile, the transition to JSS has been rocked with uncertainties. The majority of the public schools have been grappled with infrastructure, funding, and teacher shortages.
Confessions by some students indicated that by February, learning was not going on in some schools, forcing parents to ask their children to stay home.
In his parting shot, Ndii defended Ruto's nomination list from attacks over an alleged exclusion of some communities.
"If you paid attention to the CAS list, you would note that every county is represented. I would pay particular attention to the Luo Nyanza and other Azimio leaning count appointees. What you do with your observations is entirely up to you," he stated.
