Writes Leo Odera Omolo
OWING to the alleged excessive graft which is deeply rooted in the Kenyan society, the British government through its donor agency has now decided to channel its funding of free primary education outside of formal Education Ministry channels.
A section of the Kenya press reported at the weekend that the British donors have now decided to purchase textbooks worth Kshs 600 million for primary schools from this month directly from the publishers without involving the Ministry officials.
“Through its Department of International Development, it the first time the UK accessed schools children directly since it announced its withdrawal of funding to the Ministry of Education’s free learning program in Kenya more than a year ago,” The DAILY NATION reported on Saturday.
The action was taken following allegation o corruption at the Ministry in which a colossal amount of money close to the tune of Kshs 103 million is believed to have been lost. Several top Ministry officials have since appeared before the courts in connection to graft, abuse of office and other corruption related criminal offences.
Since the UK authorities has also assisted some high school students through a Kshs 4 billion scholarships fund run by the Equity Bank.
The latest text project is for 250,000 pupils countrywide Some 1,200 low cost private schools have also been selected for the new funding program.
The schools will ere identified through the Kenya Independent Schools Association. More than one million textbooks will be supplied during the one year program, says the report.
Each one of the pupils will receive textbook per schools. Books were selected based on the choice of the schools, but they had to be on the list of those approved by the Education Ministry.
According to the report, seven publishers will supply the books. However, some publishers have complained that some of their books were excluded and not selected, yet they are on the list of those approved by the government.
The report quoted one publisher Gacheche Waruinge of Phoenix Publishers as complaining that the mode of identifying the publishers should have carried out competitively. “ There should a media advertisement to ensure all publishers were made to be aware of what was happening.”
He proposed that the selection should ave been done through the Kenya Publishers Association, but the chair person of the association Nancy Korima said it was difficult for her association to meddle in the process since it was a private arrangement.”We had no way of influencing the process since the agency had their on way of doing it,” she added.
The British agency stopped funding the school children under the Free Primary Education project in 2009.
The issue sparked heated exchange in the government prompting the Prime Minister Raila Odinga to slam a suspension of Education Minister Prof. Sam K.Ongeri, a decision which was immediately rescinded by President Mwai Kibaki splitting the shaky coalition government right in the middle.
The Prime Minister had also issued the suspension to the former Minister for Agriculture William Ruto in connection with massive maize scandal. Both were immediately reinstated by the President. But the government launched investigations which resulted in several top officials at the Ministry headquarters being suspended while some were arraigned in courts on charge of misappropriation of funds and theft.
So far the cases of charged officials are still pending in courts, Nobody has been convicted of related offences while other are still serving suspension.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com