Immediate Constituency Development Fund(CDF) now National Government Constituency Development Fund(NG-CDF) was established to help improve Education standards through bursaries and other allocations.
Many schools across the country have continued to benefit from the kitty that is under patronage of Members of Parliament in every Constituency.
However, one school in Nyandarua County has been missing allocation from the kitty for some years now due to boundary conflict.
Nyandarua Primary School Location has been eliciting mixed conversations that has led to the school to suffer when it comes to benefiting from NG-CDF allocation.
The school established in 1988 as a community school is among the few public mixed boarding primary schools in Kenya.
Nyandarua Boarding Primary School has stood as a beacon of hope not only in Nyahururu but also nationally having produced renowned and dependable members of society.
While its location has remained a subject of a never-ending debate that has for years rendered the public institution helpless and starved off government funding due to its geographical location uncertainties, of whether it is in Nyandarua or Laikipia County categorizing it as a liminal institution.
The school is physically in Nyahururu Sub county, Laikipia West Constituency, Laikipia County while its administratively considered to in be Nyandarua West Sub County, Ol-jororok Constituency in Nyandarua County.
This has for the years since the launch of the National Government Constituencies Development Fund in 2003 through the CDF Act of 2003 under President Mwai Kibaki’s administration denied the school allocation.
The fund was created to promote equitable development by allocating government resources directly to constituencies for local projects, particularly in education, health, and infrastructure.
According to the school’s headteacher Charles Mburu this tussle has made the institutional lag behind in terms of infrastructural development.
“We have not been receiving CDF funds or projects because both offices do not have a clear picture on the status of our institution. This has also affected many needy students who despite applying for CDF bursaries they never get any response leave alone any disbursement, ” added Mr Mburu.
“We follow the administrative boundaries and we cannot act past our jurisdiction so we simply abide to what is there, ” said Bernard Odino the Nyahururu Deputy County Commissioner.
The boundary catastrophe has not only affected Nyandarua Boarding but also adjacent Nyahururu high School which equally suffer fate.
According to the Nyandarua County Director of Education Philip Wambua, funding should ideally come from Oljororok Constituency.
“The onus on the mode of funding entirely depends on the current Member of Parliament as well as the NG-CDF office and they may vary on case by case basis,” said the county education boss.
The school has been left with no option but to fundraise from parents as well as depend on support from the Alumni Association which has been a great pillar in the school’s development since its inception in 2011 having been pioneered by students who sat for their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in 1999.
Under the tutelage of chair Jacob Nyakiamo Mugeni the NBPS Alumni have managed to tile classrooms in the institution, launch a bursary fund, purchase a generator, photocopier and printer, computers, 65 inch digital television, E-books, fibre internet connection, books as well as an annual tree planting drive and sports equipment donations.
“Apart from the tangible projects we also have been holding mentorship bootcamps and career fairs. If only the Ministry of Education would sort out the school location debacle our institution will go a long way and catapult to greater heights,” asserted Jacob Nyakiamo during a visit to the school.
It should be noted that in 2024 the Nyandarua Boarding Primary School Alumni Association launched the first phase of a 100 million digital library project that will add value to the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in terms of enabling the learners and teachers be tech savvy and better execute the demands of CBC.
“The reason why we reach out to the alumni to help on development projects is because we have been left in solitude despite numerous appeals and delegations to the concerned offices but the pleas of this of this school have fallen on deaf ears, continues the headteacher,” he said.
According to Jacob Mugeni, the alumni association which boasts of over 2,000 active members who on a yearly basis come together through different ways to help the school bearing in kind the leadership tussle at hand with mobilization from his fellow officials.
While the efforts of the old boys and girls remain feasible the involvement of government agencies and Laikipia West Member of Parliament Stephen Karani Wachira and his Ol-jororok counterpart Michael Muchira Mwangi and their Constituency Development offices to soberly delve into this matter for the betterment of the future scholars of Nyandarua Boarding Primary School.
Despite the challenges, the school managed to qualify for the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival 2025 to be held in Nakuru next week.
Nyandarua Boarding Primary will participate in a solo dance and a modern dance.
The schools dominance in co-curricular activities is a an addition to its exemplary performance in national exams.
NB: Additional reporting by Multimedia Journalist Victor Ogalle.
