ECD standoff: Governors ready to engage President Ruto team, demand Sh5bn
Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok (left) and his Kericho counterpart Erick Mutai (right) during the disbursement of bursaries at Bomet Green Stadium on January 11.
Governors have said that they are ready to engage the Presidential Task Force on Education Reforms chaired by Professor Raphael Munavu to review the contentious clauses on the management of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE).
The Council of Governors, however, said it will not hand over the ECDE function to the national government as proposed by the task force and is demanding Sh5 billion for the function.
Dr Erick Mutai, the Chairperson of the Council of Governors Education Committee, said the ECDE function was devolved to county governments at the beginning of devolution and no money was released to the counties for the function.
"We have a budget of Sh5 billion a year that should be channelled to the counties to run the ECDE centres. If the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has the money to employ teachers, why can't they channel it to the county governments whose mandate is to manage ECDE," Dr Mutai said. "We have a budget of Sh5 billion a year that should be channelled to the counties to run the ECDE centres. If the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has the money to employ teachers, why can't they channel it to the county governments whose mandate is to manage ECDE," Dr Mutai said.
"It was the church that offered to support ECDE centres in makeshift structures before devolution started and the counties built learning centres, equipped them, employed teachers in the centres and offered meals to the children to retain them and address nutritional challenges," Dr Mutai said in Bomet on Saturday during the disbursement of bursaries to schools.
Dr Mutai said, " When you say you want ECDE to be returned to the national government, how can you talk of taking over what you did not build and workers you did not employ since independence?"
He said the fight to claw back devolution gains started with former President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee administration and should not be extended to Dr Ruto's Kenya Kwanza government.
"Up to 2018, there was a conditional grant of Sh3 billion offered to counties to support Vocational Training Centres (VCTs), which was withdrawn by former President Uhuru Kenyatta. We do not want the same thing to happen to the ECDE centres," said Dr Mutai.
Dr Mutai said it was becoming increasingly clear that Kenyans were enjoying the fruits of devolution as a result of the position taken by the first Council of Governors chairman, Isaac Ruto, who fought off plans by the national government to claw back gains made under the devolved system of government.
"Today, we celebrate Mr Ruto (former Bomet governor) for his steadfastness on devolution during his tenure as governor and COG chairman. We would not be where we are today as counties if he had not stood firm and resisted efforts to fight counties and reverse devolved functions," said Dr Mutai.
Nandi Governor Stephen Sang, his Bomet counterpart Hillary Barchok and James Orengo (Siaya) said in Kericho that the COG was ready to sit with the task force led by Professor Munavu to review the contentious areas relating to the management of ECDE, which they said was entirely a county function as provided for in the Constitution.
"We have expressed our displeasure with the recommendation of the Presidential Task Force on Education Reforms and we want to sit down and iron out the contentious areas relating to the management of ECDE," Mr Sang said.
Prof Hillary Barchok said the counties had spent a lot of resources on infrastructural development in the ECDE centres and recruited thousands of teachers to manage them.
"We have made a lot of progress in building structures in the learning institutions and dignifying the work of teachers in the centres. It is not right that we can build from scratch a sector that has been neglected since independence and just let it go," said Prof Barchok.
The governors have resisted efforts to return control of several sectors, including education, water and health, to the national government in contravention of the constitution.
Former President Mwai Kibaki (deceased) promulgated the new constitution in 2010, which created 47 county governments and devolved various functions previously managed by the national government.
However, billions of shillings meant for the devolved functions are still held by the national government, causing friction with the counties.
