Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa has defended county governments on their decision to provide bursary funds to needy students.
Speaking in Matungu, Governor Barasa said the introduction of county bursaries was as a result of increasing cases of students from needy families who were unable to raise school fees leading to absenteeism and cases of school dropout.
The governor was reacting to a letter, dated 14th January 2025, from the controller of Budget, Dr. Margaret Nyakango, that clarified the functions of county governments in the provision of education support.
In the Letter, the controller of Budget described that, on education matters, county governments are assigned pre-primary education, village polytechnics, home craft centers and childcare facilities as stated in part 2 of the fourth schedule of the Kenyan constitution under section 9.
“Specifically, 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,” stated the letter addressed to County Executive Members for Finance.
The county government of Kakamega, during Governor Barasa’s tenure, started with an allocation of Sh240 million, with each ward receiving Sh4 million worth of bursary fund.
In July 2024, during the issuance of County Bursary funds to students in Ikolomani constituency for the 2023/2024 financial year, Governor Barasa said the county government would reduce the allocation of bursary funds to Sh180 million in order to concentrate more on county polytechnics and Early Childhood Education Centres (ECDE), which are county functions.
“I want to assure that capitation for county polytechnics shall be on time to ensure the programs continue effectively,” the governor noted, while committing that the county government would improve infrastructure in ECDEs and take care of the welfare of ECDE teachers.
Kakamega Governor’s spouse, Prof. Janet Kassily Barasa, has also defended the county government for issuing bursary funds to needy students.
Prof. Kassily, who is running a programme of sponsoring teenage mothers to go back to school, says counties should even be allowed to do more and increase allocation on bursaries.
Speaking when she visited teenage mothers who sat for 2024 KCSE on Wednesday, Prof. Kassily warned that if counties are limited from offering the bursary kitty, many students would face challenges in accessing education.
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Kakamega have also raised concerns over what that term as county governments doing National Government functions, leading to shortages of funds, delays, and/or abandonment of key projects due to lack of enough funds.
The Chair of the Kakamega County Civil Society Network, Edward Wambani, cited an example of the Level 6 hospital, which he said was supposed to be constructed by the National government, but the county government resorted to constructing it.
“According to the constitution, Schedule 4, parts 1 and 2, there are functions of the national government and county government. The problem we have is that you find county governments doing national government functions, the way Kakamega embarked on constructing Level 6 hospitals, which was wrong. We have lost a lot of money, which would have done other things; now the project is still there, and nothing is going on; the national government is doing nothing, the county government is doing nothing, and the project has stalled,” he explained.
Wambani, who was speaking in a past public participation forum, said that the constitution allows cooperation and collaboration where the county government needs to dialogue with the national government concerning projects that need a lot of money so that the national government can assist.
“Counties should always engage in dialogue with the national government on projects that consume a lot of money to be assisted so that we can save money to be used to fund county functions,” he said.
The letter from the Controller of Budget has also described that for a county government to offer educational support on functions that are under the national government, then there is need to transfer those functions according to Article 187 of the Constitution.
“Therefore, any requisition for withdrawal of funds to perform functions categorized as national government functions under part 1 of the fourth schedule must be accompanied by the requisite intergovernmental agreement as prescribed by the law,” the letter states.
By Moses Wekesa
