County sets aside Sh100m to support needy students
Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi who has blamed the heightened insecurity in the region to the recent disarming of police reservists. PHOTO | KANYIRI WAHITO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The Laikipia County government has set aside Sh100 million in the current financial year for a bursary kitty to support needy students from vulnerable families.
Governor Ndiritu Muriithi said 39,211students were supported under the bursary fund in the last four years to the tune of Sh180 million.
Of those, he said, 110 from vulnerable families benefited from the Laikipia governor’s full scholarship programme that cost Sh6.1 million over four years.
"The first group of 25 beneficiaries completed their KCSE and diplomas early in March this year under the scholarship programme that my office established in 2018 targeting bright, the most vulnerable and needy students for full sponsorships,” he said while handing out bursary cheques to needy students in in Nyahururu, Laikipia West.
“The 25 students were subsequently replaced by other equally vulnerable students."
Mr Muriithi said the beneficiaries of the scholarship programme are normally identified by a bursary fund committee in every ward through rigorous vetting, adding that 20 of the students were rescued children under the care of the Laikipia government.
The governor blamed the fall of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) for shortfalls in the bursary funds that Central Kenya region children were getting.
“The reason I supported the BBI is that it promised to double our equitable share to Sh8 billion. It also proposed to add another constituency in Laikipia so that there would be additional resources through the NG-CDF,” he said.
