202 students from Uasin Gishu County currently studying in Finland on county scholarship are facing deportation.
This is after Uasin Gishu County failed to remit tuition fees for their second semester as per the scholarship agreement.
The affected students, while speaking to Citizen TV, stated that they have been given two days to vacate their hostels that have also not been paid.
Moreover, Uasin Gishu County sent these students to Finland in September 2022
In September last year, the county government of Uasin Gishu sent 202 students for a scholarship programme in Helsinki, Finland.
Out of the 202 students, 67 were admitted to Laurea University of Applied Sciences to pursue degrees in nursing, 25 were admitted to Jyvaskylla university for the nursing degree as well whereas 111 students were admitted to Tampere University Finland.
In addition, parents of the affected students are reported to have contributed Ksh. 1.19 million to the scholarship fund.
However, MCAs now claim the fund has been operating like a personal account.
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Moreover, each parent is said to have sent Ksh. 100,000 for air tickets, three months accommodation amounting to Ksh. 80,000 and a further Ksh. 30,000 insurance for each student.
The parents deposited all this money to the account operated by Uasin Gishu county employees.
Nevertheless, Uasin Gishu has only remitted school fees for the first semester.
Furthermore, the county assembly of Uasin Gishu that provided its investigations yesterday said the scholarship fund was depleted.
“We stayed in the hostel for three months. We were told rent is over yet we paid for six months…so they told us to go out of the houses so we don’t understand,” one of the students reported.
Likewise, the county government of Uasin Gishu is reported to have paid Ksh. 550,000 for the first semester for each student yet the students had paid for the full academic year.
The County Assembly as identified Three county officials including Joseph Maritim, Joel Ruto and Meshak Rono to have been at the center of the scam and recommended for a probe into the matter by the DCI and EACC.
