Three months after the Controller of Budget (CoB), Margaret Nyakang'o, barred county governments from issuing bursaries, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has promised to intervene.
Speaking on Thursday, April 24, the deputy president affirmed that bursaries should be issued by as many leaders as possible, as learners belonged to both the county and national governments.
Therefore, he asserted that he would engage with the office of the CoB to escalate the matter.
"Whether it comes from the Parliament, the office of the governor, or the Ministry of Education, bursaries should be given to learners because there is no child who belongs to the national government and another one to the county government," Kindiki stated.
"As many leaders as possible should be able to issue bursaries. I know there is a small issue from the Controller of Budget, but we will engage with that office to make sure that bursary issues are streamlined."
On January 14, Nyakang’o wrote to governors outlining the clear distribution of functions between the County and National Governments in terms of issuing education bursaries.
In the letter, she warned that counties did not have the jurisdiction to issue bursaries to primary school pupils, high school students, or university students. Instead, this was a mandate of the national government.
“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,” a section of the letter read.
The devolved units were, however, given autonomy to fund students in other levels of education, including pre-primary and village polytechnics.
“Conversely, part 2 of the Fourth Schedule under Section 9 assigns pre-primary education, village polytechnics, homecraft centres and childcare facilities to county Governments,” the letter continued.
The implications of this were an uproar, mostly from governors, with many of them alleging that they had already set up bursary programmes.
On January 17, the council of governors dismissed allegations that counties had taken up the role of the national government in a letter to the CoB. They thus termed her announcement as unconstitutional.
“Therefore, the argument that bursary is an exclusive function of the National Government is not constitutionally founded," the letter stated.
