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It is a sigh of relief to over 10,000 needy students from Alego Usonga Constituency who have received bursaries from the national government Constituency development fund.
Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi said on Sunday the fund had released bursary kitty cheques worth Sh43 million to schools to support the education of the needy but brilliant students from the Constituency.
He said the disbursements cover the periods between January to June this year.
Those who benefitted from the allocation were mainly orphaned students, those from poor backgrounds, others living with physical disabilities and students whose parents are living with chronic illness.
“We are committed to ensuring that bright but needy students in secondary schools, both boarding and day schools, and those in colleges and universities are supported,” he said.
The MP said the kitty has allocated Sh5 million to students who have been awarded full scholarships.
“Our full scholarship program is bearing fruits and giving hope to bright students from vulnerable backgrounds across the Alego Usonga constituency. Our first batch of full scholars last year posted marvellous results in 2022 KCSE,” he said.
“We released 28 students to campus from our 1st cohort of scholars who got full scholarships,” he said.
To ensure transparency, the MP instructed the committee managing the fund to make public the list containing names of beneficiaries in each of the six wards in the Constituency.
“I have instructed the fund’s manager and the chairman to have the list pinned in offices at the chiefs camp in all the six wards so that the public can access the same information on beneficiaries,” he said.
Atandi noted that the selection of beneficiaries is conducted right from the villages to ensure that only deserving cases are identified and awarded.
“The process of picking beneficiaries kicks off at the village levels. We have a village committee that helps us to identify the very needy cases,” he said.
He said the schools are also encouraged to publish the list of the students and pin the same on their notice boards for the benefit of the students.
“Normally we invite parents or guardians of the beneficiaries to pick up the cheques from the CDF office and take them to schools. The schools then issue receipts to the parents and we are copied on the same for accountability,” he said.
However, the MP noted that his Constituency has been unable to meet the bursary demands.
He said the numbers are overwhelming.
” I have the largest constituency in Nyanza and Western regions. For instance, every year, out of 100 applications for full scholarships, we can only support 30 students,” he said.
The other challenge, according to the legislator is that some secondary schools aren’t utilising the funds properly.
“Some school management boards have reported abuse of funds by Principals in projects that do not support the critical education projects,” he said. BY THE STAR