Boni parents slapped with 'Sh8m fees arrears bill' despite receiving scholarships

Bonis in Lamu are up in arms after more than 200 students from the community were sent away from secondary schools over fees arrears of about Sh8 million.

The community, which consists of hunters and gatherers, has depended for decades on the Boni Forest for its livelihood before it was declared a no-go zone following a security operation to flush out al Shabaab militants.

The Lamu government has been giving full scholarships to students from the community and residents were shocked to learn each child had accumulated a debt of Sh100,000 over the years.

Parents accused the county of failing to disburse funds to schools.

On Monday, Boni elders, led by their MCA Barissa Deko, questioned why funds had not been disbursed.

Education chief officer Shee Sagara denied the government had failed to disburse funds and instead said some parents were cons and listed their children as Bonis when they were not.

“In fact, we recently paid Sh15,000 for each of the 165 Boni children in the various secondary schools including Mokowe, Witu, Hindi, Kiunga and Lamu Boys. We are just discovering that the number of listed Boni students keeps fluctuating because parents who are not Bonis are now listing themselves as Bonis in a bid to get free fees. It's selfish,” he said.

He, however, pledged to meet all school heads this week to resolve the matter.

This year, the county government announced it had doubled the annual bursary allocation from Sh60 million to Sh120 million.

The funds were to be distributed evenly to each of the 10 wards with each getting at least Sh12 million.

“Being a minority community means our students are just a handful and that’s why we are shocked that their fees arrears have amounted to millions. All our students are at home as we speak and we want to know why yet money has been allocated for their education,” Deko said.

Parents complained of the long distances their children have to cover to reach schools and said sending them back home was inhumane.

Yusuf Shallo, a parent, said, “We need our children to stay in school. Just the transport cost alone from home to school is extremely costly. This kind of treatment ought to stop."