A section of Sokoke residents wants the Ganze Ward scholarship committee to be dissolved due to graft allegations.

Speaking in Sokoke on Tuesday, the residents faulted how the current committee was elected.

Eddy Chengo accused the Committee of embezzling the Sh10 million scholarship kitty.

Each of the 35 wards in Kilifi county gets Ksh 10M for the scholarship.

“The committee is not serving the community as expected. They allocate bursaries to their families and girlfriends. Deserving residents are not given bursaries,” he said.

Margaret Kombe claimed the committee asks for money before they issue out bursaries.

“I am currently supporting orphans whom I am living with and I have applied for bursaries but for me to get Ksh 10, 000 I have to bribe with Ksh 5, 000. This is inhumane and that’s why I want this committee disbanded,” she said

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James Katana said the committee’s tenure in office expired and two weeks ago a new one was to be elected.

The committee however met in Ganze town and re-elected themselves.

“The committee is made up of all men. There is no gender balance. We want the elections to be conducted at sublocation level so that every area is represented,” he said

Katana said the community deliberated on the issue and forwarded minutes to the Kilifi county ward scholarship fund board.

“The board heard our grievances and gave out a new date for the elections. The committee got an order from the court to stop any plans of conducting a fresh election,” he added

Jackson Mangi, a member of the committee denied the allegation.

He said the committee has always been fair to everyone.

Renson Mramba expressed concerns that many students from the ward may fail to report back to school due to fee balances.

Mramba who has two children in high school said he depends on the scholarship kitty to educate his children.

“I have two of my children in high school. They performed well and they were called to join national schools in 2017. One was to join Mangu high school but failed to join because the county delayed releasing funds. He joined a school in Kwale but the county has not been consistent in paying the school fees,” he said.

The county government of Kilifi came up with a policy to pay full scholarship for all students called to join national schools.

The implementation of the policy has not been efficient as MCAs administer the kitty as a bursary instead of a scholarship.

In most cases, students are given fees for the first term and then they are left on their own.