{"id":14087,"date":"2026-01-09T22:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/14087\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T22:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:10:17","slug":"develop-your-schools-gachagua-tells-northern-kenya-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/14087\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Develop your schools,\u2019 Gachagua tells Northern Kenya leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, when he addressed the press on January 9, 2025\/SCREENGRAB<\/p>\n

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has intensified his critique of leaders from Northern Kenya, questioning their investment in public institutions despite what he described as \u201cmassive resources\u201d allocated to their counties under devolution.<\/p>\n

Gachagua said leaders from the region \u201cshould not lecture us about affirmative action,\u201d adding that 13 years after devolution began, the argument that some counties should continue receiving preferential treatment in the placement of students to national schools may no longer be justified.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevolution has been in place since 2013, and leaders from those regions have not developed institutions at the same pace, yet they want their children to benefit from facilities established by other counties,\u201d he said Friday during a press conference in Nyeri.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the opportunity to develop institutions of the highest standards possible in Kenya, not just for the children of those areas, but for the children of Kenya,\u201d he said, adding that comparable counties in Western, Rift Valley and Mt Kenya regions had used smaller amounts to establish \u201cbeautiful institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gachagua noted that during his tenure as deputy president, he observed limited development in Northern Kenya despite sustained transfers of public funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI travelled as deputy president to those areas, and I did not see new institutions corresponding to the level of funding received,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised that some leaders from Northern Kenya did not reside or work there. Anytime I visited some counties, they requested space on my aircraft. I would travel with them both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the country needed a structured debate on whether affirmative action and zoning for national school placement should continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevolution was meant to bring equity. Equitable allocation of CDF funds was intended to bring equity. Thirteen years later, does any county still require affirmative action? We need to discuss this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor how long are we going to have affirmative action?\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks follow Gachagua\u2019s recent comments questioning the National Placement Service policy that gives special consideration to learners from historically marginalised regions in accessing national and extra-county schools.<\/p>\n

The DCP leader also questioned why children from other regions attend national schools in Mt Kenya, while some from the region are placed in ‘smaller schools’.<\/p>\n

Northern Kenya leaders, including MPs led by Farah Maalim and several governors, criticised Gachagua, saying affirmative action in education remains necessary due to decades of marginalisation, insecurity, teacher shortages and cultural barriers that continue to affect the region\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

The leaders added that placement reforms should be addressed through institutional channels rather than what they described as \u201cpolitical incitement\u201d or \u201cregional chest-thumping.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, when he addressed the press on January 9, 2025\/SCREENGRAB Former Deputy President Rigathi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[9466,5811,80,9463,9465,9464,98,100,101,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-14087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-debate","9":"tag-gachagua","10":"tag-kenya","11":"tag-national-schools","12":"tag-northern-kenya","13":"tag-placement","14":"tag-star-news","15":"tag-star-news-kenya","16":"tag-the-star","17":"tag-the-star-newspaper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}