Nairobi News

Hashtag

American singer reminds Uhuru of his unfulfilled promise for education


American singer Selena Gomez has called out President Uhuru Kenyatta on his promise to increase the budget for education above the usual 17 percent, which he is yet to fulfill.

Selena was in the country last December doing community work. During that visit she visited schools under construction in collaboration with the WE Organization.

WE is an international charity and educational partner that operates collaborative programs on an international scale.

In Africa, it partners with communities to implement WE Villages, a holistic, five-pillar international development model designed to achieve sustainable change.

Selena said the trip to Kenya brought her face to face with how a considerable number of students who are still not receiving quality education.

“Hey guys it’s Selena, I just got back from an incredible trip to Kenya where I had the opportunity to meet with remarkable young people and teachers, who are fighting for the right to a free, quality and inclusive education. However, countless students in Kenya are not receiving a quality education. Including the 59 percent of girls who are not even going to school,” Selena said via Instagram.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

#NRGCircle

A post shared by NRG Radio (@nrgradioke) on

“As a result young people across the country and particularly the poorest and most marginalised are missing out on critical opportunities. In response to your calls last year, at the Global citizen festival in South Africa, Kenyan president Kenyatta committed to increase spending on education. From 17 percent to an impressive 30 percent of the national budget. But we haven’t seen progress or received an update on this commitment yet. So we need to make sure its front of mind for the president and minister of education and it’s delivered upon,” she added.

In 2018 president Kenyatta issued a live press statement in response to the numerous pleas by global citizens from around the world who called on him to take action.

President Kenyatta pledged to increase the education budget close to 30 percent of the total budget.

“I respond to the many global citizens who have called upon my administration to maintain its education budget above 20 percent of our total budget. But I want to say I want to go one step further and this year I pledge to you, my fellow global citizens, that in Kenya our education budget will be closer to 30 percent of our total budget. Making it probably the highest on the African continent,” President Kenyatta said back then.