How Nairobi’s Sh297.5m bursary cash ended up in Australia?

Revelations that Nairobi county Sh297.5 million bursary funds were “mistakenly” sent to a bank account in Maryland, Australia baffled MCAs as the sitting resumed Tuesday.

Education Committee chair Millicent Mugadi told the assembly this following questions on why the funds have not been disbursed to the beneficiaries.

“The money was sent to a wrong account and had to be sent back to City Hall’s co-operative bank account on Monday,” Mugadi said.

The MCAs had put Mugadi on the spot further asking why it took more than a month to detect the error in the remittances to the Maryland bank account.

The receiving account does not belong to the Nairobi county government.

Minority Whip Peter Imwatok further questioned how money from the Central Bank of Kenya sent to the Controller of Budget ended up in Maryland.

“We had walked to the bank and questioned them on the whereabouts of the money and they confirmed that they didn’t have it in the account,” Imwatok said.

There is fury over the delay of bursaries which up are yet to be received. In the plan, each of the 85 wards was to get Sh3.5 million.

Most of the MCAs said they cannot face their constituents without accurate answers to why the bursaries were delayed.

The legislators said their counterparts in other counties have already received their share.

And in her defence, Mudagi told the House that a staff from the education department mistakenly typed wrong information leading to the erratic transaction.

She said the communication between the two banks in a bid to the correct error is to blame for the delays.

Mugadi said the bank had by Monday printed 20,000 cheques which are awaiting approval by the acting Finance chief officer Ekaya Alumasi.

Umoja II MCA Joseph Ndonji said the same staff from the education department had been handling bursaries even in the previous administration.

“We cannot continue being given poor excuses. The Controller of Budget has already released money for the other counties, why not Nairobi,” Ndonji said.

Speaker Beatrice Elachi urged Mugadi to get the correct date of disbursement so as to as to assure the members on the bursary issue.

–the-star.co.ke