Reps want bursary cash all at once
Ward reps want the County Government to provide the remaining bursary money in one tranche.
They said doing so would address the perennial problem of students dropping out of school.
The Education Committee chairman at the County Assembly, Mr David Kitavi (Laini Saba) said the bursary cash being currently disbursed was meant for third term last year.
“We are facing a lot of difficulties. There are many pupils out there who cannot attend school without this money. When the money delays, the students are sent home,” said Mr Kitavi.
Each Member of the County Assembly has spent the past one week issuing Sh500,000 bursary cheques in their ward.
Even though the students applied for bursary in September 2013 and all the forms had been returned by December, it is only a week ago that the County government released Sh42.5 million.
“We want the process for application done once for the first and second term. This means we are pushing to have each ward given Sh1 million in May when schools open for second term,” said Mr Kitavi.
He said this would have a positive impact because parents would know how much to raise.
“Repeating the process every term is time wasting and inconveniencing. We want to finalise everything by the time the children are reporting to school at the beginning the term. This could also boost performance,” he said.
A motion by Kahawa West Rep Patrick Ngaruiya last year compelling the county government to allocate Sh1.5 million every year to each ward was passed unanimously.
On Tuesday, Mr Ngaruiya said the process was taking more time than necessary and asked authorities to speed it up.
He said each beneficiary was supposed to get at least Sh5,000.