Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka has appointed a new committee that will carry out the vetting process of ward bursary and county scholarships beneficiaries.
Lusaka said the newly appointed committees in the subcounties will oversee and ensure proper vetting to allow only deserving cases to benefit from the kitty.
The county chief was addressing the ward bursary and scholarship committees at the county headquarters on Monday.
Lusaka called on the selected committee members to be vigilant while carrying out the exercise, saying that he doesn’t want the kitty to be marred with irregularities as witnessed before.
“This time round, I want the vetting process to be very transparent and ensure that only the deserving cases are awarded the bursary and scholarship funds,” he said.
The governor said a lot of well-off parents, including members of the county assembly in the former regime, senior government employees, county staff, school principals, the police and chief officers, were among those benefiting from the scholarship programme.
Lusaka further explained why his administration is keenly reverting and replacing the vetting committee, saying the previous regime didn’t carry out the process according to the law.
The governor said a task force report had revealed the number of beneficiaries on the kitty’s list did not tally with the number of students in schools.
“Following the education task force report, it was noted that some of the Form 4 students who had done exams and left were still getting funding from the scholarship,” he said, adding that still on the same list some names were repeated, hence getting double funding.
However, Lusaka said that on the same beneficiary list some students were getting support from other sponsors such as Equity Bank Wings to Fly scholarship, Bungoma High School scholarship kitty, Family Bank and KCB Foundation.
Webuye West MP Dan Wanyama urged the county ward bursary and scholarship committees to share the beneficiary lists with both the ward bursary kitty and the NG-CDF.
This, he said, is to ensure beneficiaries do not get double funding, arguing that it will give an avenue for more needy cases to benefit.
“I strongly support the move by the county government of Bungoma for this noble idea but let us work with both the ward and the NG-CDF to ensure that beneficiaries won’t appear on both lists,” Wanyama said.
His sentiments were echoed by Webuye East MP Martin Wanyonyi.
Governor Lusaka also called on members of the public to be vigilant and report any well off individuals whose children are benefitting from the kitty.
Also present at the event was Bungoma county TSC director, Education executive, Bungoma county director and Kabuchai MP, among others.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
