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Governor Anne Waiguru said the Intergovernmental Partnership Agreements have been cleared and forwarded to the Controller of Budget for final processing. \/ANNE WAIGURU\/X<\/p>\nGovernor Anne Waiguru said the Intergovernmental Partnership Agreements have been cleared and forwarded to the Controller of Budget for final processing. \/ANNE WAIGURU\/X<\/p>\n
Kirinyaga students and their families have received a major boost after the county government secured approval to resume the disbursement of bursaries and scholarships, ending months of uncertainty over the legality of county-funded education support.<\/p>\n
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\nGovernor Anne Waiguru on Wednesday announced that the Intergovernmental Partnership Agreements (IPAs) required to allow the county to legally administer education bursaries have been cleared and forwarded to the Office of the Controller of Budget (OCOB) for final processing.
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\n\u201cWe have good news. The bursary\/scholarship IPAs have now been cleared. The documents have been forwarded to OCOB, which should clear the last hurdle and allow the County to access the funds. We thank all stakeholders for their participation and patience,\u201d Waiguru said in a statement.
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\nThe clearance marks a critical step in unlocking funds that had been frozen following a standoff between county governments and the Controller of Budget over whether counties are legally allowed to fund secondary and tertiary education.
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\nUnder the constitution, funding education beyond early childhood development is primarily a function of the national government. <\/p>\n
This constitutional provision prompted the CoB to block counties from directly spending public money on bursaries for secondary school, college and university students, arguing that such spending was outside county mandates. \n<\/p>\n
In the letter dated January 14, 2025, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang\u2019o outlined the division of functions between the county and national governments.<\/p>\n
She said students joining universities and other tertiary institutions should not be getting bursaries from county governments as that is a reserve of the national government.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart 1 of the Fourth Schedule under Section 16 designates universities, tertiary educational institutions, primary schools, special education, secondary schools and special education institutions as functions of the national government,\u201d the letter read in part.<\/p>\n
Nyakang’o explained that the devolved units would only have full control in funding students in other levels of education, including pre-primary and village polytechnics, as stipulated by part 2 of the Fourth Schedule under Section 9.<\/p>\n
She said due process would be required for any county government that wish to provide bursaries to students in levels designated for the national government.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, any requisition for withdrawal of funds to perform functions categorised as national government functions under Part I of the Fourth Schedule must be accompanied by the requisite intergovernmental agreement as prescribed,\u201d she directed.<\/p>\n
The decision left thousands of needy students across the country in limbo, as counties had for years stepped in to support learners who could not fully rely on national programmes such as the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) or national government bursaries. \n<\/p>\n
\nTo resolve the impasse, the national and county governments agreed on the use of Intergovernmental Partnership Agreements.<\/p>\n
These agreements provide a legal framework through which counties can partner with the national Ministry of Education, formally granting them authority to administer bursary and scholarship programmes while remaining compliant with the constitution.<\/p>\n
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\nThrough the IPA arrangement, counties are allowed to run education support schemes as delegated programmes, ensuring proper oversight, accountability and alignment with national education policy.
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This involves the formulation of an intergovernmental agreement executed by an authorised person and published in the Kenya Gazette.<\/p>\n
\nKirinyaga\u2019s successful clearance of its IPA means the county can now legally access and disburse funds for education support, providing relief to students who had been waiting for assistance to pay school fees and other education-related costs.
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\nThe move will especially benefit learners from vulnerable households who depend on county bursaries to remain in school, particularly at a time when the cost of living continues to strain family incomes.
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\nThe development also signals a broader shift towards cooperation between the two levels of government, ensuring that education support reaches more students without violating constitutional boundaries.
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\nOnce the Controller of Budget gives final approval, the Kirinyaga County Government is expected to proceed with the release of bursary and scholarship funds under the new legal framework.
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\nFor parents and students who have endured delays and uncertainty, the announcement offers renewed hope that education support will now flow without legal interruptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Governor Anne Waiguru said the Intergovernmental Partnership Agreements have been cleared and forwarded to the Controller of Budget…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[14375,14376,14378,14379,9324,14377,80,14374,100,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-23315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-anne-waiguru","9":"tag-bursary-scheme","10":"tag-controller-of-budget-education-funds","11":"tag-county-government-bursaries-kenya","12":"tag-education-funding-kenya","13":"tag-intergovernmental-partnership-agreements","14":"tag-kenya","15":"tag-kirinyaga-bursaries","16":"tag-star-news-kenya","17":"tag-the-star"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23315","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=23315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}