Kisikioni Secondary School students are ferried back to school in a police Land Cruiser after trekking to Machakos town in protest over poor 2017 KCSE results, January 11, 2018. [Photo|Maugo Owiti]The government's free day secondary school programme is going on in Machakos County as planned, says county education official.The Machakos County director of education Samwel Boto said the government had put necessary structures in place to ensure the multi-billion initiative that was launched by the government late last year succeeds.“The free day secondary school education program is already on course in all the government funded institutions within the county. This I can confidently bear witness,’’said Boto.Boto who was speaking from his office in Machakos County on Friday refuted claims that some public schools were turning away students due to the delay in the release of the funds by the government.He said the only money students were being asked to pay for reporting to school was that for uniforms and lunch as had been agreed earlier between parents and the institutions.The education boss said he had not received any report of a single student who had been turned away from school due to lack of school fees.“No single student has been asked to pay any extra coin save that of catering for his daily lunch and his uniform. Any other expenses that a touch on tuition and exams has been fully catered for by the government as earlier communicated,” he explained.The government is expected to pump a total of Sh29 billion in its bid to provide free and affordable secondary school learning to hundreds of students enlisted in all day secondary schools across the county.The money is expected to cater for buying of learning materials, laboratory equipment and teachers learning reference materials.On January 2, 2018, Kenya Secondary Heads Association Chairman Indimuli Kahi had complained about the government failure in releasing the free secondary school education fund on time even as students started trooping back to school.
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