Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Friday caused a stir in Kisumu County, when he conducted unannounced visits to Nyalenda slums.
Magoha crisscrossed the slum, visiting house after the other as he sought to establish if the selection of beneficiaries of the bursary fund, is being done well.
The CS and his team of officials jumped across open sewer drains, as he sought to access homes of residents, demanding to know if the beneficiaries are deserving cases.
Among those who were caught off guard by the visit was Pamela Oduwo, a fish monger in Nyalenda, who says that the CS visited her and demanded to see her child Jane Akoth.
“Where is the child? I want to see her,” demanded the CS as Pamela and her husband Patrick Odhiambo struggled to come to terms with the fact that they were hosting a CS.
The CS later phoned Tigoi Secondary School principal and ordered that Akoth, who scored 316 marks in the 2019 KCPE, be allowed to join the school pending the processing of her school fees through Elimu Scholarship Program.
This left the parents in disbelief, given that they had resorted to looking for a day school for the girl, due to their inability to afford her admission at the school, which is a boarding institution.
The CS also conducted similar visits in Kondele, Manyatta, Dunga, Nyamasaria and Obunga.
The scholarship program seeks to help the government realize its goal of ensuring a 100% transition to secondary school which was introduced last year.