A subsidy programme for day secondary school learners in Kiharu constituency has continued to attract the attention of political leaders from various parts of the country.
Seventeen groups of MPs have so far benchmarked in the constituency.
The programme dubbed Masomo Bora pays fees to individual learners in all 60-day secondary schools in the constituency and also includes day scholars in day and boarding secondary schools.
Each learner in schools that charge Sh10,500 annually will have Sh5,000 paid under the programme while students in schools that charge Sh12,000 annually receive Sh7,000.
Parents are required to pay the rest of the fees which amounts to slightly over Sh1,000 per term, leaving them with a hugely lessened burden.
Started early last year, it benefits about 14,000 learners and facilitates them to have a feeding programme with a menu that includes rice with beans for three days and githeri for another three days.
MP Ndindi Nyoro said last year, the programme’s total cost amounted to Sh100 million shared between parents and the NGCDF kitty.
The success of the programme has seen political leaders from other parts of the country stream into the constituency to learn how it works with the hopes of implementing it in their areas.
The MPs who visited various primary schools that have also been tiled, and renovated and their compounds installed with cabros were trained on the programme for the better part of Thursday.
The constituency has also received adoration for its labour-based model of project implementation that reduces the costs of projects by eliminating contractors.
Under the model, projects are implemented by local masons while the bulk of the labour is provided by residents.
The 15 MPs were the seventeenth batch of political leaders to benchmark in the constituency.
Thika Town MP Alice Ng’ang’a said the achievements of the NG-CDF team in the constituency were mind-blowing as it had been able to use little funds to achieve more value.
“The biggest lesson I have learnt is that so much more can be achieved with the same amount of funds. This is what I want to take back to my constituency,” she said.
Soi MP David Kiplagat said though the labour-based model of project implementation is good, it is the Masomo Bora programme that he would prioritize.
His sentiments were echoed by Bura MP Yakub Adow who said the programme would make learning easier for learners from humble backgrounds.
Nairobi Woman representative Esther Passaris who took her National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) team to the training hailed Nyoro as the best MP in utilization of NG-CDF funds.
“All Nairobi MPs should adopt this model. Right now, many people are struggling with money and it can help with retention of learners in schools because many are sent away for fees while others drop out”.