Ndhiwa Member of Parliarment Martin Owino has faulted the directive for parents to pay school fees through the e-citizen platform.
Owino said that the move would deny children from poor backgrounds the opportunity to acquire education.
He said there were many parents who could only afford to educate their children by supplying farm produce and firewood to schools.
“Some of the parents who are financially challenged supply schools with vegetables, firewood, grains and other items which are converted into school fees for their children,” he said.
Speaking today in Ndhiwa town when he distributed bursaries worth Sh23 million to vulnerable students learning in secondary schools, Owino said e-citizen would frustrate such parents from educating their children.
“There are many parents who don’t have money to pay school fees but they only do so through barter trade. They give schools firewood and various agricultural produce to cater for their children’s school fees. But the barter trade will not be possible with the use of e-citizen,” Owino said.
He asked the government to rescind the decision of paying school fees via e-citizen.
The MP said that directing all parents to pay fees via e-citizen would thwart efforts to promote equal education for all Kenyan children.
“I urge the government to rescind the decision to pay school fees via e-citizen. This will prevent many children from acquiring education,” he said.
The MP further said that the e-citizen would cause a cash crunch in schools. He said that the government had shown inability to remit capitation funds to schools on time which was likely to extend to transfer of school fees paid via e-citizen.
“If the government cannot remit capitation to schools on time, it is likely fees paid via e-citizen will face the same challenges which will cause financial crises in schools. We can’t accept that,” Owino said.
The MP distributed Sh23m which is part of Sh61m set aside for bursary in the constituency.
By Davis Langat
