Shame of missing Ksh886M in bursary funds 

Seven counties cannot account for Ksh886.7 million spent on bursaries, a new report shows. The report from the Auditor General, Nancy Gathungu, also shows that out of Ksh11.12 billion allocated to counties for scholarships and bursaries, only Ksh9.8 billion was spent, leaving an unspent balance of Ksh1.3 billion. 

According to the report, the seven affected counties with bursary irregularities include Nakuru County with Ksh382.9 million, Nairobi County with Ksh301.4 million, and Kakamega County with Ksh128.9 million. Others are Garissa, which has issues amounting to Ksh5.3 million, Taita Taveta, and Isiolo County, with irregularities amounting to Ksh24 million. 

In addition, Isiolo County has an unreconciled amount of Ksh30 million, as the Scholarship and Bursaries Fund financial statements reported an amount of Ksh70 million while the County Executive’s financial statements reported an amount of Ksh40 million.

In Samburu, the county has issues amounting to Ksh44.1 million. 

“Seven (7) Counties failed to provide supporting documents for bursary allocations and acknowledgements amounting to Ksh886,757,332,” reads the report. 

The report further shows that two counties, Kericho and Bomet, have failed to fairly distribute bursaries, leading to potential bias and exclusion of deserving students, while in Narok county, Ksh886,000 was reported to have been used for imprests and other unrelated expenses. 

Prudent management 

In Kiambu, bursary cheques amounting to Ksh1 million remained uncollected for extended periods, becoming stale and unutilised by the intended beneficiaries. 

With regards to counties that overspent their allocations, the report shows that Kiambu went over the limit with an amount of Ksh92.9 million, Mandera County overspent its allocation by Ksh44.9 million and Kericho overspent by Ksh16.5 million, all raising questions about their budget management. 

Conversely, Migori had the largest unspent balance of Ksh1 billion, followed by Wajir County with an unspent balance of Ksh78.3 million and Tana River County with an unspent balance of Ksh61.3 million, indicating potential inefficiencies or misallocation of funds. 

With regards to financial statement discrepancies and unreconciled balances, the audit revealed that three counties reported inconsistencies between different financial records with unreconciled variances. 

For instance, the report shows that in the case of West Pokot, the county has an unreconciled amount of Ksh8 million, as the statement of financial performance recorded an amount of Ksh608 million, while the statement of comparison of budget and actual amounts reported an amount of Ksh600 million. 

In Nairobi, the report unearthed irregularities in the management of executive scholarships and ward bursaries. 

The audit report raised concerns over Ksh3.7 million that the Bursary and Scholarship Applications and Vetting committee recommended that it be given to some applicants for the executive scholarship amounting but the said applicants could not be traced. 

In addition, some scholarship forms for the successful applicants did not have the committee’s and head teacher’s recommendations as required by the guidelines. 

In another case, the report shows that although the county Executive disbursed Executive Scholarship to 5,339 students in the financial year 2023/24 and also disbursed Ward bursaries to 29,775 students in Term III amounting to Ksh301.4 million comprising of Ksh170 million for the Ward Bursary and Ksh131.4 million for the Executive Bursary respectively, the benefitting institutions did not provide acknowledgement receipts or letters to confirm that the bursary reached the intended beneficiaries. 

In Lamu, the report raises concerns over Ksh126.9 million in respect to scholarships and other educational benefits paid as a grant transfer for the purpose of issuance of bursary and scholarship, to fund other educational activities. 

“The activities funded by the County Executive, including provision of bursaries to needy students in Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities, fall under the mandate of the National Government,” the report adds. 

In Kitui, the report raises concerns over Ksh84 million spent on the bursaries to student beneficiaries in secondary schools, universities, tertiary schools and special education institutions, yet the functions fall under the national government’s functions. 

In Elgeyo Marakwet, an expenditure amounting to Ksh14.5 million was paid to Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) as fees for nursing students in various colleges. 

It was, however, noted that the county already had an existing education fund meant to issue bursaries to needy secondary school and college students.

Further, the review of the list of bursaries issued in the year under review showed that KMTC students were also sponsored under the County Bursary Fund. 

“Management did not provide evidence on how the vetting for the bursaries was done, and no acknowledgements from the beneficiary colleges were obtained for the fee paid,” the audit warns. 

In Migori, there are questions relating to Ksh120 million transferred to the ward development fund for bursaries.

The report also raises questions regarding scholarships and other educational benefits amounting to Ksh23 million that relate to the Inua Elimu scholarship programme. 

The report comes just days after Gathungu flagged various constituencies over the misuse of bursaries by various constituencies. 

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