County to renegotiate Finnish scholarhips to save students

The Uasin Gishu County Government has moved to avert the looming deportation of hundreds of Kenyan students studying in Finland who are said to be stranded due to lack of school fees.

County has been on the spot for the mess that allegedly saw millions of shillings meant for students under the Finland Scholarship Programme embezzled by senior county officials.

Deputy Governor John Barorot yesterday held a meeting with parents of students studying at Laurea University where it was resolved that he will be traveling to Finland to re-negotiate some of the agreements that the students had with the institutions when they joined. “Among the issues we will be discussing with the universities is the possibility of the students getting more time to work, to raise finances that can help in funding their expenses and fees while in Finland,” Barorot said.

He was accompanied by the County Executive in charge of Education Janet Kosgei.  The Deputy Governor assured parents that the county government will continue offering any kind of support to ensure the safety of their students abroad.

Scholarship scam

 Dr Kosgei dispelled fears that the county was detaching itself from the Finland Scholarship Programme. 

“The county is the safe space, if anything happens to the students, it will be up to the county to find out what is happening. The county is here to stay, it will not detach itself from this programme,” said Kosgei.

  Assembly ad-hoc committee, which investigated the scholarship scam, established  that three senior officers under former Governor Jackson Mandago’s administration were responsible for the mess as they made themselves signatories of the fund to enrich themselves and withdrew millions of shillings on diverse dates.

During yesterday’s meeting at the county headquarters, the parents signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Governor Jonathan Bii’s administration which will guide their engagement going forward.

 According to the County Attorney Stephen Lel, the new MoU makes it clear what the parents’ obligations in the scholarship are.  “The MoU will also be used in negotiating for more work time for the students. It makes it clear that it is the duty of the parent to pay fees and other financial obligations for their children,” Lel said. “It is this document that the Deputy Governor will use to ask for the students to get more time to work, aside from studying,” he added.

 According to the county government, the first group of 202 students who went to Finland left Kenya between September 2021 and September 2022 with 111 going to Tampere University, Jvaskyla (25), while 66 went to Laurea University.

“We have also negotiated with universities for an extension of the fee due dates and discussed and reminded the parents that payment of fees is their responsibility,” said Barorot.

People Daily established that in the arrangement, each parent managed to raise Sh1.19 million as school fees for the county government to ensure the students are placed at universities in Finland.