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Parents whose children were expected to travel to Finland and Canada for studies yesterday faulted the Uasin Gishu county government over what they termed insensitivity to their plight.

The county government has come under fire for the mess which allegedly saw millions of shillings meant for students under the Finland Scholarship Program embezzled by senior county officials.

The parents who held a crisis meeting yesterday said that many of their children are stranded at home despite paying millions of shillings to the county government’s Overseas Education Trust to facilitate their travel.

“The county government cannot now run away from the programme yet it is the one who signed the MOU. The office dealing with this issue is based at the county headquarters. The governor himself created a taskforce. What was it meant for if it was not part and parcel of it?” said David Kosgei, patent.

The parents also wondered why the devolved unit used the money of those parents who had paid to clear fees arrears for those who had not paid.

“We duly paid everything that was required but our children are still at home. We have been taken round in circles for a long time. What we only want now is a refund of our money,” said Eunice Jelagat, another parent.

No refunds

The county government has since announced that it has no money to refund the affected parents with the scholarship account having only Sh1.8 million when they took over.

 “We are in the process of engaging the universities for a possible refund. But this will be a process because it should have been asked for before. We are not ready for a refund now but we can tell parents who had paid fees for overseas training that we have a complete database. But as of now, we have no funds to refund. Let’s tell each other the truth,” said John Barorot (pictured), Deputy Governor.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has since commenced investigations into allegations of fraud in the scholarship program following numerous complaints from members of the public.