Senator Chimera wants politicians stripped powers to run bursaries

By Jabali Media

Nominated Senator Raphael Chimera wants the running of bursaries taken away from politicians, and domiciled within the national government apparatus to guarantee free education for all.

According to the legislature, the money in politicians’ hands in the name of bursaries could go a long way in sealing fee gaps from needy learners.

Coupled with the money already available at the Ministry of education, Chimera said, Kenyan children will be guaranteed free and quality of education.

“People have used the bursary as a political tool. Even during campaigns, sadly you hear sentiments to the effect that if you don’t vote for me, that program will go away. Maybe that guy is the initiator of that bursary program. People sometimes perish because of lack of knowledge. They believe if I don’t vote for Chimera for instance, the bursary program he runs will go, yet it is a policy it is in law,” said Chimera, who was nominated by the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.  

“The way the bursary program is being administered nationally; it is not streamlined. It is discriminatory in nature. A politician would always want to support people who supported him or her in elections. So, there is some kind of tokenism in the whole administration framework of the bursary program,” he added.

Currently, there are bursary schemes run by the President, Members of Parliament (MPs), governors and Members of County Assemblies (MCAs), all running into billions of shillings.

The nominated Senator said all that money will do wonders as far as supporting learners is concerned, if all the bursaries are collapsed into one kitty.

“If we put all this money together into a kitty – not necessarily domesticated t the ministry of education, but give it to the treasury and let us have schools receive this money directly from the exchequer to go towards funding their capitation needs, and everybody accesses education, we make it free,” he argued.  

Chimera joins a host of other politicians calling for free universal education, as university students continue to gang up against the new higher education funding model, terming it discriminatory.