No bursary for non-voters , rules Arati

Kisii Governor Simba Arati on Wednesday ruled out dishing out education bursaries to the residents who did not vote in the last General election.

His administration, stated Arati, would only give priority to those who rose up to make a decision on who would govern them.

“We must be deliberate in all what we do from electing leaders, to seeking benefits when they get to office ,if you did not vote be ready to forgo these bursaries.

The County had set Sh 3 m for each of the 42 Wards as bursaries.

The MCAs were asked to use the Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission, Iebc, register to lock out those who did not vote from accruing benefits as bursaries.

The County bursary would cater for high school students only.

College and University students would be partly funded by the Constituency Development Fund.

Arati who spoke in Masimba in Masaba South during the inspection of bursary disbursements by the MCAs, further told those residents early poached to cast votes in areas outside their areas of residence to go and apply for the bursaries from those elected there .

The residents turned in thousands across the Wards overwhelming the few application forms made available.

There were complaints forcing the Ward Reps to petition for additional allocations.

The push for a scale up was made by Bouse Maurura (Masimba) and Wycliffe Siocha (Ichuni) who proposed an annual Ward bursary allocation of Sh 10 m in future disbursements.

“With these staggering interest it means we must go to the drawing board and add more even it means doing a reallocation,”, said Siocha at Ekerubo where he oversaw the bursary applications.

Mairura said the Sh 3 m per ward was still a drop in the ocean against the surge in the applications.

Governor Arati said the high turn out was high indicative of the growing need to invest more in education. .

He said he had instructed the Ward Reps to give priority to orphans, single parents and other vulnerable segments.

The County allocated a total 126 million across all the wards in the 2022 /2023 fiscal year.

Arati said the subsequent allocations would need to be scaled up.

He said he is mulling increasing to Sh 5 million and later Sh 10 m.

The visited Ibeno, Gesusu, Nyamasibi and later others in Kitutu Chache South and Kitutu Chache North during the round tour of inspections.

At Nyamasibi he was joined by Christopher Onsaga and Anthony Kerage in Gesusu

At Ibeno he was hosted by Steve Atika.