By Faith Anene, Kakamega
Heads of schools can now have a sigh of relief after Treasury released Sh48.8billion in capitation to finance free primary and secondary education.
National Treasury and Economic Planning Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi announced that the money will be disbursed to schools from early next week.
Mbadi who spoke during a working tour Savona Water Project in Kakamega town today (Friday), said the disbursement was 50 per cent of the budget that was allocated to fund education in the country.
“We delayed in disbursing funds to schools because we had repay Sh70billion this week to service our external debts,”~ CS John Mbadi
He was accompanied by Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa, Water CECM Peninah Mukabane and senior county officials.
“Next week we are releasing Sh48.8 billion to fund our education system. We know there has been a delay but that issue has now been sorted out,” said CS Mbadi, adding, “The government remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting our learners in ensuring that no one is left behind in accessing quality basic education,”
Mbadi also announced that the National Treasury will then disburse another Sh31 billion to counties, which is part of the shareable revenue between the devolved units and the national government.
“A lot of money was borrowed from 2014 from external lenders and this is what is choking the government and we are not out of the woods yet,” said Mbadi. “We delayed in disbursing funds to schools because we had repay Sh70billion this week to service our external debts,”
According to Mbadi, the public wage bill has also ballooned to the extent that the exchequer spends a whooping Sh75billion to pay salaries of civil servants.
However, he reassured the public that the government is on track with its financial commitments, and that education remains a top priority in the Kenya Kwanza administration.
“Despite the challenges, the education sector will continue to receive the necessary funding,” Mbadi said, underscoring the government’s unwavering dedication to advancing the education system and ensuring the success of learners across the country.
The Cabinet Secretary also seized the opportunity to wade into the brewing storm between the Council of Governors (CoG) and the Controller of Budget (CoB) who issued an advisory banning county governor from issuing county bursaries to finance education.
“The CoB cited constitutional provisions but sometimes as we put the law into practice, we must gauge the matter with the reality on the ground. Its true parents cannot afford to make payments despite the tuition fee being subsidized,” said Mbadi
He added: “What to do is to have a provision of concurrence between counties and the national government so as to allow county governors to continue issuing bursaries to needy students,”
