Kisii County Implements New Criteria for Bursary Awards Using IEBC Register
On April 12th, Kisii governor Simba Arati announced a significant change in how his government would award bursary funds. During a tour in Masimba, Masaba South, the governor expressed his disappointment with the low voter turnout in the last General Election.
He noted that despite this, residents still turned up in large numbers to seek delivery services. As a result, he revealed that only those who had voted in the last election would be allowed to apply for county bursaries, using the Independent Electoral Boundaries and Commission (IEBC) register to identify eligible applicants.
Governor Arati emphasized the importance of residents participating in the voting process and being purposeful in their actions. He warned that those who did not participate in electing their leaders should be prepared to forego the opportunity to benefit from county funding through bursaries.
The county had allocated Ksh126 million for the bursary kitty, to be shared equally among all wards, with each ward initially receiving Ksh3 million. However, Arati promised to increase this amount to Ksh5 million in the next financial year due to the growing number of deserving cases.
Arati clarified that the bursary funds would only be available for secondary school students, and priority would be given to students from poor households. Additionally, the county government would only accept one bursary application per household.
However, some governance experts raised concerns about using the IEBC register as the sole criteria for eligibility, pointing out that it would exclude 37 percent of the population based on the data from the last election. According to the IEBC, only 407,227 residents out of 637,111 registered voters turned up to vote on August 9, 2022.
Governor Arati’s announcement marked a radical shift in how bursary funds would be awarded in Kisii county. By using the IEBC register to identify eligible applicants, he aimed to incentivize residents to participate in the democratic process and prioritize voting as a crucial civic duty.
The governor’s decision to allocate bursary funds to secondary school students from poor households also demonstrated a commitment to addressing educational disparities and promoting social welfare in the county. However, concerns were raised about potential exclusions based on the voter turnout data and the limitation of one application per household.
It remained to be seen how these changes would be implemented and their impact on the community.
Kisii County Implements New Criteria for Bursary Awards Using IEBC Register