Senator Mungatana calls for national bursary policy
By Aloys Michael, August 31, 2025Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana has called for the development of a clear and uniform national policy on the issuance of bursaries, saying the current system lacks transparency and leaves many deserving students frustrated.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, August 31, 2025, Mungatana said the current bursary system is disjointed and overly reliant on the discretion of individual office holders.
“There should be transparency and uniformity in the issuance of bursaries. The bursaries are currently distributed through multiple channels without a standard guiding framework,” he wrote.
“The Offices of the President, Governor, Women Representative, Member of Parliament, Member of County Assembly, and the Ministry of Education all give bursaries. The biggest problem is that there is no official policy that can create certainty, predictability, uniformity and transparency.”
According to the senator, the lack of a standardised national framework has turned bursary allocation into a politicised process, with funds often awarded based on political affiliations rather than need.
“As a result of this, a lot is left to the discretion of the office holders who make decisions dependent on political considerations. This has left many deserving students in Tana River County and other counties in Kenya very frustrated,” the statement read.
The legislator said it is time to cure the existing weaknesses by creating a clear, fair, and national policy that would guide bursary issuance across all counties.
He emphasised that such a policy would ensure equity, prevent duplication of efforts, and guarantee that the most vulnerable students receive the financial support they need.
“We must cure this by developing a national standard policy on bursaries across the country,” he stated.
The senator made these remarks while receiving student leaders from Tana River County, who paid him a courtesy call to discuss strategies for raising funds for needy students and an upcoming event aimed at shedding light on the challenges facing learners in the county.
During the meeting, he also congratulated newly elected President Bashir of the Tana River University and Colleges Students Association (TUCSA), pledging his continued support for student-led initiatives that aim to address educational inequality.
Mungatana has long been an advocate for improving access to education in marginalised regions, particularly in arid and semi-arid counties like Tana River. He has consistently pushed for fairer distribution of resources to bridge the education gap between urban and rural areas.
His latest remarks add to the growing national conversation on education financing, with more leaders and stakeholders calling for reforms to ensure that bursary allocations are made transparently and equitably.