President William Ruto on Thursday afternoon ordered Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba to convene a meeting with governors to restore bursary issuance in counties.
Speaking in Murang’a County, the Head of State instructed CS Ogamba and Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata to immediately hold a meeting with other governors and come up with an agreement on how bursaries will be issued in counties.
While giving the orders, Ruto criticised Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakang’o, for allegedly opposing bursary issuance in the counties, terming her move as a retrogressive approach to derail basic education in Kenya.
Addressing the residents, the Head of State also pledged to support the county bursary programme, stating that there was no difference between bursaries issued by the national government and those given by the counties.
“All the pupils are our children. What is the difference between money given out by the national government and the county government? Now I want to tell the governor that I am ready to support you so that counties can give bursaries to our children,” Ruto commented.
“I oppose the Controller of Budget’s pronouncement that counties should halt giving bursaries. For this reason, I have ordered the Ministry of Education to immediately convene a meeting with county governments and come up with an agreement so that counties can give out bursaries,” he added.
Ruto’s sentiments come two months after Nyakang’o disagreed with governors over the issuance of bursaries by counties, stating that bursary given to primary, secondary and other tertiary institutions was solely the role of the national government.
The Controller of Budget, in a statement on January 15, maintained that counties were only permitted to issue bursaries for pre-primary education and village polytechnics in line with Part 1 of the Fourth Schedule of the law.
According to Nyakang’o, for counties to issue bursaries, they must first enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the national government as required by Article 187 of the Constitution.
She noted that for county governments to offer educational support on behalf of the national government, there needs to be a transfer of functions.
“Part 1 of the Fourth Schedule under Section 16 designates universities, tertiary educational institutions, primary schools, special education, secondary schools, and special education institutions as functions of the national government,” read part of Nyakang'o's letter to governors.
However, Nyakang'o's declaration was opposed by governors who criticised the Controller of Budget, stating that the law did not explicitly assign the distribution of bursaries to either of the two levels of government.
