Contribution of constituency development fund bursary on the provision of secondary education of Ogiek girls in Njoro sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

In most developing countries, access to education has not been fully realized especially among marginalised communities. This is more specifically pronounced in marginalised communities as well as low income households such as the Ogiek community of Nakuru County. The Ogiek community, an indigenous people, does not give equal opportunities to boys and girls to access education. This is due to socio-cultural practices and poverty because the community lacks access to resources resulting to low enrolment of girls in secondary schools. Low enrolment of Ogiek girls continue to be reported in schools at all levels despite governments efforts to fund education. In 2003, the government of Kenya introduced Constituency Development Fund (CDF) bursary. The aim was to assist the poor and the vulnerable groups meet their basic needs such as health and education. No research has been done to find out whether Ogiek girls have benefited from this Bursary. This study therefore sought to establish the contribution of the Constituency Development Fund to the provision of secondary education of girl child among the Ogiek people in Njoro Sub-County. The target population comprised of a thousand Ogiek girls while the accessible population comprised of Ogiek girls in secondary school and those eligible to be in secondary school. Snowball sampling procedure was used to select 111 Ogiek girls. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Validity of the instruments was ensured by use of experts. A pilot study was conducted to ensure reliability of the instruments where a coefficient of 0.761 was obtained by using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The study used descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequencies, means, percentages and Chi square. The study established that Ogiek girls with medium level of awareness of CDF bursary were significantly higher than the ones with high or low levels (ƛ2= 21.5, df=2, p=0.001), only 10 % of the girls accessed the funds. The CDF bursary had low influence in retaining the girls in school and more than 80 % of the girls perceived that the CDF bursary played a negligible role in transiting them to tertiary institutions. The reasons stated for the low access to the fund were: non application, lack of application forms, lack of knowledge of how and when to apply for the funds and lack of response by the fund administrators. The study recommended that the CDF administrators and other stakeholders create ways of training and providing the girls with knowledge on the fund and how to apply for it.