Kilifi County Government is offering full scholarships to more than 3,500 national school students under its County Scholarship Programme, Deputy Governor Flora Chibule has said.
Speaking during the launch of Bishop Thomas Kakala’s autobiography, at Jesus Cares Centre (JCC) church in Malindi, Chibule noted that the programme goes beyond the county’s statutory mandate for Early Childhood Development Education and vocational training to meet an urgent local need.
Bishop Kakala is the JCC Malindi’s Senior Pastor and founder of the Boresha Elimu Community Based Organisation, which supports destitute children in Kilifi County to acquire education as well as the patron of the Malindi Pastors’ Fellowship.
“We have 3,500 students whose full fees are being paid by the county government – not a bursary or part payment,” Ms Chibule told congregants, stressing that the support covers all costs for learners joining national schools.
She explained that the first cohort, roughly 2,300 students, are now in Form Three, while the rest are the first batch of Grade Ten learners who joined senior school under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system this year.
“This is being done to ensure that our children get their basic right to education,” she said, adding that the initiative complements existing efforts through the County Bursary Fund, as well as bursaries from the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF), the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), and other well-wishers.
The deputy governor also celebrated Bishop Kakala for founding the CBO and donated Sh500,000 on behalf of Governor Gideon Mung’aro and herself to support the CBO.
Chibule emphasised that the county government is working collaboratively with the clergy, having incorporated clerics into its administration.
Youth Affairs and Creative Economy Principal Secretary Fikirini Jacobs said the national government under President William Ruto values servants of God and promised to organise a breakfast meeting with all pastors in Kilifi County to appreciate their support for the president.
“I have had a deep discussion with the president and he has allowed me to organise a breakfast meeting with all pastors in Kilifi County to appreciate them for standing with him in the last General Election,” Jacobs said.
He donated Sh400,000, which included a donation of Sh300,000 from Interior and National Administration Principal Secretary Raymond Omolo, to the CBO.
Malindi Member of Parliament Amina Mnyazi lauded Bishop Kakala for his selflessness, noting that the outspoken cleric has assisted the destitute without regard to their faith.
She urged children to love, appreciate, and honour their parents so they may receive unqualified blessings.
Bishop Kakala said the autobiography was born out of a life of struggle, explaining that coming from a humble background denied him education—something he does not wish any other child to miss.
Despite poverty denying him formal schooling, he expressed pride in having helped others attain university education, whose degrees he said he shared in spirit.
He described the book as a passion project and testimony to the struggles he and his siblings endured, recalling that due to poverty, they would share one mango among five people for breakfast.
“But God has helped us. I decided to start Boresha Elimu CBO to give others the opportunity to get what I did not, and I call for support,” he said.
By Emmanuel Masha
