Kitui Rural MP David Mwalika has come under sharp criticism for awarding a college student a Sh91, 000 CDF bursary while other college students across the constituency received a paltry Sh5, 000.
The cheque number 4732 for Sh. 91,000 was drawn in favour of one Ziyad on May 31, 2018 and signed by Salim Hussein, the fund account manager. It was shown that the girl is a student at Kenya Water Institute (KEWI), Kitui Campus.
As soon as the matter became public, speculation went rife that the said student was the MP’s ‘mpango wa kando’ and was only being awarded for services rendered. This claim however was vehemently denied by the MP who said he does not know the woman in question and neither does he have an affair with her.
But when the heat for the MP to explain how a single student could benefit from such a hefty bursary amount compared to meagre ones awarded to others became too much, Mwalika promised to investigate the matter and have the culprits brought to book.
“That person was not on the list of beneficiaries. Someone deliberately wrote the cheque for unknown reasons,” Mwalika said in a text message.
He, however, noted that the award of Sh 91,000 to one student was illegal and fraudulent.
When pressed by The Nairobian, the first term MP responded thus: “Investigations are ongoing since we want to know what actually happened. Payment of the cheque was stopped.”
Our subsequent calls and text messages to the MP to find out who was carrying out the investigations and what it had unearthed bore no fruit as Mwalika flatly refused to respond. Our investigations, however, showed that all the staff at the CDF office were still in office despite the MP’s promise to take action.
“It is queer for the MP and his staff to entertain and reward people with public money. His failure to act on this matter clearly shows he is the wrong person to be in charge of the CDF,” noted a bitter Eugene Mwangangi, a constituent.
Speculation has been rife on social media that the said Ziyad Hassan is not a student at KEWI - but is undertaking a catering course at a different institution. She is also said not to be from Kitui Rural constituency.
Elsewhere, his Kilome counterpart in Makueni County Thaddeus Zambia has found himself in hot soup after University students complained of inadequate allocation of bursary funds alleging that he is giving peanuts of Sh3, 000.
The battery of college and university students as well as their parents have vowed to send the MP home in 2022.
“He claims to be an engineer yet he does not seem to value education. What can Sh3, 000 to do a college student?” posed one university student.
