East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) MP David Ole Sankok has proposed that the national government should deny MPs and Governors the funds to dish out bursaries.
Speaking during a morning interview with K24 on Tuesday, Sankok expressed his opinion, stating that the law should be amended to allow only the the Ministry of Education to give out bursaries claiming that multiple channels to issue this category of funds creates an avenue for looting public resources.
“We have presidential, CDF and County government bursaries. Why don't we just put this money together and give it to the Ministry of Education,” the MP stated.
While making his argument he further cited, that each of the offices that have the constitutional authority to issue bursaries struggles with bureaucracy, which he cited as another reason why the system needs to be re-evaluated.
Sankok emphasised that streamlining the process will enhance efficiency by way of cutting off the middlemen who leech on the bursaries system to make a killing.
“The presidential bursary should have a committee of around 200, the CDF Bursaries for each of 290 constituencies with 20 members equates to around 6,000 members, while wards total to 10,000 members, ” Sankok stated.
In his calculations, the MP concluded that the over 20,000 nationwide committees should be consolidated into one committee which he stated will seal corruption loopholes.
Sankok’s proposal comes a day after the Ministry of Education announced the 2023 KCSE results on Monday.
The results announced by CS Machogu indicated that over 200,000 students are set to join universities in Kenya after scoring a C+ and above.
Other students are also set to join Technical and Vocational Education Training institutions (TVET), a move which the government has been encouraging in the past to boost the Kenyan craft industry.
Last week, the government had released funding to schools to the tune of Ksh31 billion. On Monday, the government released another Ksh12 billion to facilitate the reopening of schools this week.
The government funding is also aimed to develop classrooms and public schools to accommodate students in Juniour Secondary Schools, in the move towards promoting the Competence Based Curriculum.
