Two Mombasa residents have moved to court to challenge a directive by the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o stopping county governments from issuing bursaries to needy students.
High Court judge Jairus Ngaah on Wednesday certified the case as urgent and directed Mr George Mwaura and Mr Geoffrey Mugambi to serve the court documents on Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, Controller of Budget (CoB) Nyakang’o and Attorney-General Dorcas Oduor.
“The application is certified urgent. I direct that the application be served forthwith and in any event, not later than three days from today’s date. I direct the respondents to file and serve their response within seven days of the date of service of the application,” said the judge.
The case will be mentioned on February 19, for directions.
The two residents said Dr Nyakang’o issued a circular on January 14 to all county governments stating that the withdrawals for funds to perform functions categorised as national government functions, must be accompanied by the requisite intergovernmental agreement.
The duo said if the circular is implemented, any disbursements that were meant to be channeled towards issuance of bursaries at the county level will be delayed, thus affecting children who depend on bursaries.
They added that the circular would allow the CoB to place restrictions on withdrawal of funds meant for bursaries and in the process effect children from poor backgrounds and marginalised communities, who cannot raise the requisite fees for their education.
“This (the circular) is not only unconstitutional but threatens to undermine the role of devolution as enshrined in the constitution,” Mr Mwaura.
According to Mr Mwura, the circular insinuates that provision of bursaries for needy students is only a preserve of the national government, when this has not been stated in the fourth schedule of the Constitution.
“That the above circular places an unreasonable and unexpected financial restriction upon county governments specifically on the issuance of bursaries for needy students even as it is the 2nd Respondent (CoB) that approves County government requisitions, based on the itemised budget estimates arrived at after negotiations with the Commission on Revenue Allocation,” Mr Mwaura added in an affidavit.
The two residents said the County government of Mombasa has been for years providing bursaries to bright and needy students through the Elimu Scheme.
They said the scheme has been constituted as per the Mombasa County Elimu Scheme Act, 2023 and has the main objective of mobilising resources to provide quality childcare and education services and provide for the granting of bursaries, scholarships, revolving loan scheme, vocational training support and grant disbursement to students from the county.
The duo added that the scheme had undergone several changes from its establishment in 2014 and has so far disbursed over Sh700 million to secondary, colleges, special needs, university and city polytechnics.
“That the provision of funds for the above scheme mainly derive from the disbursements to the county government from the National Treasury as provided for in the respective Mombasa County Finance Act,” Mr Mwaura said.
He said nothing in the distribution of functions between the two levels of government restricts the issuance and provision of bursaries or scholarships to the national or county government.
