Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage Aisha Jumwa will on  Wednesday appear before the National Assembly to answer to queries by lawmakers.

Jumwa is expected to provide answers regarding the changes the government has made to the disbursement model of the Women Enterprise Fund (WEF), significant reduction in the allocation to the -Fund (NGAAF) in the FY 2023/2024 budget for projects across the 47 counties and the breakdown of the funds allocated and disbursed for the provision of sanitary pads.

Also to appear will be Cabinet Secretary for Education, Ezekiel Machogu who will respond to questions regarding criteria used to disburse infrastructure funds to schools in the country and disbursement of an average capitation grant by the Ministry.

Machogu, who would be making his third appearance before the National Assembly, will be further put to task to provide details on the measures undertaken by his ministry to bolster Guidance and Counselling Departments in public schools and the status of implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

New curriculum

Machogu will also be expected to outline measures put in place by his ministry to ensure the success of the new curriculum and the status of ownership of valid land documents by public schools in the country.

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula in adherence to Standing Order No 42A (5) and (6), had emphasised the significance of such engagements.

“These sessions epitomise the essence of democratic accountability and parliamentary oversight. I urge members to fully engage the Cabinet Secretaries and get answers on behalf of Kenyans,” Wetangula told MPs.

The issue of the disbursement of money set aside for the purchase of sanitary pads has been a thorny one with MPs demanding an explanation on how Sh968 million was spent.

MPs want the ministry responsible to explain how the millions were spent during the 2021/22 Financial Year.

“We need to be told how the Sh968 million set aside for procurement in the last financial year was spent,” Education Committee chair Julius Melly said during a debate last year.

A report by the Auditor General shows the government spent Sh3.5 billion between 2011/12 to 2021/22 financial years under the programme, which has benefited 12.6 million girls countrywide.

Sanitary towels

However, according to Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, the Ministry of Education issued only seven packets of sanitary towels to each girl enrolled in Class Six to Eight in public schools during the period under review.

Gathungu further revealed that this was way below the terms of the contract where the ministry was to issue nine packets of sanitary towels to each girl to cover the nine months they are in school.

  However, the ministry said it issued a “few” packets for the two financial years of 2019/20 up to 2021/22 because of budgetary constraints. During a recent meeting with MPs, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said the budgetary allocation for the towels in the 2022/23 Financial Year was Sh470 million which will support the procurement of 11.8 million packets for the 1.68 million girls in public primary schools.

Nominated MP Umulkher Harun wants the government to state tax exemption measures the government has imposed on sanitary pads.

Harun said the ministry of Education should disclose measures the government is putting in place to ensure equal and timely distribution of sanitary pads to all school-going girls.