Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok.
Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok is on the spot over the expenditure of Sh65 million meant for a school feeding programme for early childhood development education (ECDE) learners.
The development comes after it emerged that despite the county government calling the programme a school feeding programme, learners were only promised a 200 milliliter packet of milk twice a week.
More damning, however, is that the learners never even received the milk as had been promised by the county government.
Appearing before the Senate Education committee on Thursday, Governor Barchok admitted that his administration, for instance, distributed milk to the ECDE learners for only five weeks in the just concluded first term before the packets disappeared in thin air.
The county boss had at first tried to paint the programme as successful before the revelations emerged from residents who were following the live meeting.
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It further emerged that some schools did not even receive the milk more than once for an entire term.
“This is not even a school feeding programme but a milk supply programme. Interesting enough is that learners received the milk only five times between January and March 2025,” said area Senator Hillary Sigei.
However, the governor said they had planned for seven weeks but managed only five weeks due to budgetary constraints hampering upfront payment to the supplier, New Kenya Cooperative Creameries.
“There is no first term that is seven weeks in this country. Maybe that is only in Bomet,” charged nominated Senator Prof Margaret Kamar, the committee’s vice chairperson.
Nominated Senator Catherine Mumma added: “You mean you budgeted for supply of milk twice a week and absorbed all the funds but only managed to give milk to the learners for only five weeks?”
'Not enough funds'
In his defense, the second term governor said the Sh65 million is not enough to supply the pre-school learners for an entire year.
But more disturbing was that the county government is spending close to Sh200 million every financial year on bursaries for secondary school learners, a function that belongs to the national government.
Governor Barchok drew the ire of the committee members when he said his administration is spending the millions on bursaries and not on the ECDE learners, a county function, solely for political expediency.
Bomet County Governor Hillary Barchok before the Senate Public Accounts Committee at KICC, Nairobi on Tuesday, November 21, 2023.
“You mean you are fine with absconding your duties by spending the millions on the milk programme but have money for bursaries just because of politics? This is dangerous,” said Ms Kamar.
“You are concentrating more on bursaries, a national government function, but making it hard to perform devolved functions,” added Kirinyaga Senator James Murango.
Classrooms built on private land
Nevertheless, the questions did not end there after the committee heard that county government has been constructing ECDE classrooms on privately-owned land, exposing the county to loss of millions should the landowners decline to hand such land to the county government.
“Are we investing public resources on private land? I have heard people complaining of classrooms being constructed on their land but are not being paid,” said Senator Sigei.
In his response, the governor told the committee that the assertion could not be further from the truth.
However, he was stopped in his tracks when the residents mentioned the ECDEs built on private land such as Sibayan, Kisabei Simoti, Kapchemoino, and Kimugul, among others.
“This case of Sibayan is even more than five years old. These are just a few mainly from Sotik. There could be many more we don’t know about,” said Mr Sigei.
“It is an illegality to invest public funds on a land that does not belong to the county government,” added Senator Murango.
Nonetheless, the governor said they are in the process of getting the documents for the land after being hard pressed, changing his earlier stance where he had said there is no classroom constructed on private land.
“You cannot commit money on a project that you don’t have documentation for. Anything can happen. Why don’t you finish the process of land acquisition first before going ahead with the constructions?” posed Ms Kamar.
“You are trying to legalise an illegality. You did not follow the law and for five years, you have not regularised the same. You seem to have money for bursaries but not for land acquisition,” added Ms Mumma.
