Bungoma County Audit Task Force unearthed wanton pilferage in which Ksh19 million was paid to ‘ghost students’ by the previous administration.
Area governor, Ken Lusaka, released the task-force report that indicted former county officials who were accused of orchestrating a scandalous Education Scholarship Fund.
The Bungoma County Education Scholarship Fund was established in 2018, months after former governor Wycliffe Wangamati was sworn into office.
In the audit, 524 ghost students reportedly benefited from the Ksh35,000 bursaries, with the county possibly losing more than Ksh.19 million.
"Those who will be found to have been involved will carry their cross, and I don't see anyone escaping.
“This report was prepared after the task force went and counted the children and found that some schools had 119 ghost children," Governor Lusaka aforementioned.
The report has accentuated intentional overpayments of school fees to undeserving students, thereby locking out the needy ones.
It was established that Kibabii High School, for instance, had 521 students on record, yet the actual number was 409, denoting a difference of 119 students.
In the case of Kibabii, each student was allocated Ksh.35,000 as bursary, while the fate of the Ksh.4.1 million disbursed remains unknown.
The same trend was evident in other schools including Teremi High School, which also received Ksh.3.9 million for 113 ghost students.
At Kapsokwony Boys, 62 ghost students received Ksh.2.1 million from the Bungoma County Education Scholarship Fund.
The report also blamed former Governor Wangamati’s government for leading a flawed identification of beneficiaries of the fund where undeserving cases were awarded scholarships and deserving cases denied.
At the same time, Governor Lusaka confirmed that “the original list of beneficiaries had also been tampered with, further findings indicating that seven students had been transferred but their former schools continued to receive funds.”
He, however, did not clarify how the county would seal the loopholes.
