American musician Selena Gomez is holding President Uhuru Kenyatta to his word on a promise he made about improving the quality of education in Kenya.
Selena Gomez visited Kenya in December 2019 and says she was very disappointed with the state of education in the country.
She lamented that during the Global Citizens Festival in South Africa, Uhuru promised to improve the budgetary allocation to the education sector from 17% of the national budget to 30%, but has yet to come through on his promise.
“In Kenya, I had the opportunity to meet with remarkable young people and teachers who are fighting for the right to free, quality and inclusive education.
“However, countless students are not receiving a quality education, including 59% of girls in the country that are not even going to school. As a result, young people across the country, and particularly the poorest and most marginalized are missing out on critical opportunities,” she regretted.
In the 2019/2020 budget, the Ministry of Education received the lion’s share of the budget, having been allocated Ksh473.4 billion of the Ksh3.03 trillion national budget.
This expenditure, however, accounts for only 15.4% of the national budget, roughly half of what the president had promised at the South African summit.
Gomez urged the president and Education CS George Magoha to come together and ensure that the promise is fulfilled for the sake of the Kenyan students.
Education changes lives. I recently traveled to Kenya with @wemovement and witnessed firsthand the importance of quality education. I’m supporting @GlblCtzn to call on Kenya to keep its promise to every Kenyan child. https://t.co/hiIJOZA4jM pic.twitter.com/xXGVArlXLr
— Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) March 4, 2020