There was drama at the Kapseret Sub-County offices on Monday after a section of Uasin Gishu parents whose students were to travel to Finland and Canada for further studies staged a protest.
The over 100 parents who were carrying placards stormed the Sub-County Offices where Governor Jonathan Bii Chelilim has been operating due to ongoing renovations at the county headquarters in Eldoret town.
They were demanding a refund of their monies.
As they stormed the offices, top county leadership seemed to have been caught unawares as their respective security detail struggled to secure them.
But while they managed to secure Governor Bii’s exit from the building, his deputy Eng John Barorot had to go through the fence to escape the wrath of the angry parents.
However, a source told Uasin Gishu News that several to county officials remained trapped inside the building following the incident.
Earlier in the day, Governor Bii had hosted Netherlands Ambassador to Kenya, Maarten Brauwer at the Kapseret Sub-County Offices.
The Finland Scholarship program has been clouded with controversy with claims some of the money paid by parents had been misappropriated.
Probe into the Finland scholarship program
A section of parents early this year petitioned the Uasin Gishu County Assembly to probe the program after which it recommended further probe by various government agencies, including the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The Assembly further recommended the suspension of county officials that were invoved in the program.
Some of the parents who staged the protest on Monday appealed for intervention from President William Ruto to resolve the matter.
“I have suffered a lot of stress and my children are worrying after failing in their hopes to study in Finland yet as a family we used all the money we had to pay for the programme,” said one of the parents, Edward Kiptek.
Under the Finland Program, parents paid over Ksh1.2 million to facilitate their children’s education.
It later emerged that the program was not a scholarship as earlier communicated, with parents asked to pay more fees to save their children from being kicked out of their respective universities.
[…] Eldoret: Deputy Governor Escapes through Fence Parents Storm Kapseret Sub-County Offices […]