Sakaja defends billions spent on bursaries
National
By
Edwin Nyarangi
| Oct 31, 2025
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja before the Senate Education Committee at Bunge Towers, Nairobi, on October 30, 2025. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has defended counties for offering bursaries to students despite this being a role of the national government.
Sakaja, who appeared before the Senate Education Committee, was responding to senators who questioned the decision by governors across the 47 counties to include bursaries in their budgets, yet this is not a devolved function.
The Governor told the committee, chaired by Nominated Senator Betty Montet, that counties have to ensure bright and needy students go to school by giving them bursaries, since this role cannot be left to the national government alone. “In Nairobi County, we have spent Sh1.8 billion on school bursaries in the last two years, compared to Sh3 billion used by previous administrations over 10 years. We have no option but to ensure that needy and bright students get an education,” said Sakaja.
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Nominated Senator Catherine Mumma sought to know why counties were giving bursaries to students, adding that counties should only do so if they receive a conditional grant from the government.
Mumma argued that counties were effectively paying bills on behalf of the national government, and that for counties to take on additional responsibilities, they should receive extra allocations.
She further said counties could not claim they were providing social protection by issuing bursaries to students.
“Counties should not give bursaries to students because this is a national government role.
‘‘They should only do so if they get additional allocations through a conditional grant; otherwise, they will be paying bills for the national government, which should not be the case,” said Mumma.
Sakaja responded that most counties did not view the issuance of bursaries as interference with national government roles but rather as a complementary effort, since the government was already building classrooms and employing and paying teachers.
The Governor said the issue of bursaries was political in nature, adding that it would be politically suicidal for any governor to declare they would not issue bursaries to deserving students in their counties on the basis that it was a national government function.
“In Nairobi County, we have given bursaries to 134,000 deserving students. What would happen if we said we were not going to support them in their studies? That is why no governor would dare say they will not offer bursaries, since it would be politically suicidal,” said Sakaja.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna took Sakaja to task over the shortage of Early Childhood Development Centres in some wards in Nairobi, noting that the deficit was affecting learning activities.
He cited areas such as Ruai, Korogocho, and Kayole Central, which each have only one centre.
Sifuna also asked Sakaja whether he was aware that 70 per cent of children in Nairobi attend informal schools, meaning only 30 per cent in public institutions benefit from the school feeding programme.
He said it was unfair to spend billions of shillings to serve only a small segment of the city’s children.
“The Nairobi county government is spending billions of shillings to feed only 30 per cent of children in public schools, while 70 per cent who attend informal schools are not beneficiaries. This defeats the whole purpose of the project,” said Sifuna.
Sakaja said the county government is mapping out public schools located near informal learning institutions as a short-term measure to enable children from informal settlements to access meals during lunchtime under the Dishi na County initiative.
He said that of the 210 public schools in Nairobi, 17 central kitchens currently serve 316,000 learners, and that to include all informal schools, the county would require 69 more kitchens to meet its targets.