The High Court on Monday issued conservatory orders prohibiting the Controller of Budget (CoB) from withdrawing, retracting, or interfering with its circular issued on January 14, 2025, thus delaying the county governments’ wrangling over the disbursement of bursary funding.
This comes after Laban Omusundi, a citizen, and the Katiba Institute, a lobby group, filed a petition of urgency before Justice Samuel Mukira Mohochi at the Nakuru Court, requesting that the court refrain from interfering with the decision.
”A temporary conservatory order is hereby issued restraining the 3rd respondent (CoB) from withdrawing, retracting, and or interfering with its circular (OCOB/CIRCULAR NO. 1/2025) issued on January 14, 2025,” Justice Mohochi directed. ”A temporary conservatory order is hereby issued restraining the 3rd respondent (CoB) from withdrawing, retracting, and or interfering with its circular (OCOB/CIRCULAR NO. 1/2025) issued on January 14, 2025,” Justice Mohochi directed.
”A temporary conservatory is hereby issued, restraining the 3rd Respondent from going against its Circular to authorise and approve any county requisitions for expenditure on bursaries and other education support programs targeted at universities, primary, secondary, and special schools which are not accompanied by requisite inter-governmental transfer agreements.”
The CoB stated in the circular that it is unconstitutional for county governments to use their finances to assist the operations of the federal government.
The county governments have been severely harmed by the court’s most recent directive, which limits their ability to fund pre-primary education, village polytechnics, home craft centers, and children’s facilities.
Additionally, any agreement made with the Council of Governors during the recently finished Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) meeting, which was headed by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, cannot be implemented by the office of CoB Margaret Nyakang’o, the Court has said.
As a result, the court ordered that county governments be prohibited from awarding new scholarships or granting bursary allocations to recipients outside of the current fiscal year.
Respondents and petitioners are instructed to submit their answers within seven days of the case’s hearing on February 18 of this year.
Both the Council of Governors and the DP agreed during the meeting that counties with their own education funds may continue to provide bursaries to the thousands of students who rely on them.
Counties without such funds were also instructed to set them up so they could grant bursaries or collaborate with the Ministry of Education to make the process easier.
