Very interesting.
@ Muhika you have a unique view on life. I agree with you poverty on it own should be the last consideration in a scholarship at university level but for primary and secondary education it should be the primary reason. I also think that for an individual from a poor family to achieve good results probably went through alot more but that should appear on the scholarship application as he articulates his life experience and why he deserves it.

@Ric dees if you play an instrument or 2, speak 3 or 4 foreign languages I you deserved the scholarship and i envy your brain. To add a spanner in your argument from my experiece coming from a poor family and getting a scholarship to study in the UK.I found the rich kids in my class including the africans were more altruistic in their outlook on life. My view though in line with theirs in words was never taken up in action. The rich are not as thick or undeserving as you would want us to believe. Food for thought.

@chepkel there are so many options he can follow instead of sitting and waiting. He can resit his 4 form and if he is as bright as you say he can get a better grade and the government can sponsor his university. He can go to polytechnic and learn a trade which will give him skills that will make him independent. University education speaking again from experience makes the large majority of students myopic to their options and inhibits out of the box thinking .... yes i am in that majority!

Any person deserves a scholarship as long as he qualifies on the merits. But seriously, if my parents can afford my fees or if i can afford to pay my own fees then why the hell would i want to be granted a scholarship. Is that not selfish and ridiculous. A scholarship simply means that one will be sponsored for the course. So if i am rich or i can afford tuition and i qualify for admission then i would rather just get an admission and pay my fees. let another person have that chance.

@Gathiga, i like your post. I really like it. Educate a poor child and you educate many more educate a rich kid and you get 0. 9nevertheless, not in all cases)

My personal Story.
I completed class 8 when may dad was retiring from the civil service(Read one of the articles on Nation this week on the fate of most pensioners).I excelled in fact I was 4th in my district.Those days it was not the media circus we see currently during the release of results. Was invited to join a National School. The fees was way beyond what my dad could afford, in fact, impossible.The principal was hard hearted and we went back home with my dad.He went to follow his retirement benefits which those days could take up to half an year.I understand these days it takes 33 working days but I digress. Meanwhile I was cooling my heels at home.

Help came on the prize giving day for the best students in the KCPE when my headteacher realized I had not joined high school.She was horrified and organised an impromptu harambee where a neat amount was raised(God bless her soul)Luckily my dad also got his benefits just about that time. We went back to the Principal of the National School but he told us we were time barred and my chance had already been given to some other kid. I settled for a provincial school that accepted to take me in. My dad was lucky to get another job and we managed until 3rd form.All this time I tried unsuccessfully to get a bursary or a scholarship but always failed to do so, why I don't know.

Tragedy struck in after 3rd form that I nearly did not do the exam. I switched to a day school completed form 4 and got good grades and was able to join a very competetive course in university where I was assisted by HELB(Im faithfully repaying back my loan, it will assist somebody else.)I have a good job and is assisting in the education of my siblings.
The point of the whole story is I agree with Chepkel, why do you need a scholarship when you can afford it especially at secondary school level or undergrad. I agree that as from post graduate level it is acceptable whether for the rich or the poor but below that give to the deserving cases.

@Gathinga
Now none of us imagined of a coalition and now they are bickering over petty issues, like who gets which house.
Case in point there is a mansion in Kent usually reserved for the Foreign Secretary and Nick Clegg is claiming the right to have his retreats there..so they are working a house sharing agreement with George Osborne ..interesting

Matters Economics, the Euro is in trouble and infact M/s Merkel has banned short trading in Germany, but the UK has says short sellers are welcome here...The two leaders have very different views on Europe Nick Clegg is very pro - Brussels while Cameron is not...lets see how this plays out.

The key issues that divide them are:

Capital Gains Tax - Tories fear their supporters will loose out if they embrace the Lib-dems policy of raising the rate from 18% to a level inline with income tax of 40 - 50%. This will hit second homes and Share sales.

Human Rights Act - Conservatives want to scrap the act, Lib-dems said "Do so at your own peril"

Foxhunting - blah blah blah

Taxburden - Lib dems want to cut inheritance tax and also question tax breaks for couples.

Banks - This is the BIGGEST of them all.They want to split banks to SEPARATE HIGH STREET BANKING and RISKY INVESTMENT FUNCTIONS.

This is very much like the US model..wonder how it will work??

All of a sudden immigration has taken a back seat..hence smiling kidogo.
Not sure you know this, they have lowered the minimum work permit qualifications to undergrad as opposed to Masters.However only guys form the wider EEA are getting workpermits.

Who would have imagined a conlib coalition. Good for you though on the immigration front ..no wonder you were looking for a kenyan Nanny to boot.

Are the conservatives in agreement with liberals that banks need to be broken down. I think its a position popular with the masses everywhere given the reaction to Golman Sachs

Do lib dems want to cut inheritance tax really, i thought tax cutting was the realm of the conservatives whose supporters are more wealthy and most likely affected with these taxes

from the storyline we needed scholarships bcoz ur parents were poor planners_let us not subject our kids to the same crap.

I had never thought about it this way. From that angle it makes sense to give prefernce to kids from poor families


This, however, is not convincing. If rich kids don't bring much to the table, then poor ones bring even less!!

@Mukiha

I dont think i agree with you on this one. If for example you take two children. One from a poor background who got an A - few resources in terms of books, less access to teachers, long distance walks, hard labour at home vs a child from a rich family who got an A having gone to private schools with all the resources available and probably the most he ever did was wake up and study, i think these two children are worlds ahead.

That does not mean that a child from a rich family (I am actually working hard to be rich and am still hoping my son will get a scholarship) should be denied a scholarship just because he comes from a rich family. And it also does not mean that we cant get exceptionally talented/bright children from rich families, no we can. However, they are overshadowed by those who are pampered to attain the same level of academics and who would have really been challenged should they have been subjected to the poor child's situation.

But nevertheless, all things equal, i would grant the child from a poor family the scholarship because he has no other alternative unlike the other child who could still very well afford it.

On your post on brain drain, thats pretty enlightening.

I tend to agree with both Mukiha and Gathinga on their explanations regarding Human capital flight but if i may add a twist, for all those in the west we all agree you need to take a salary cut and worst of all a demotion of sorts, what is interesting is that most of us agree on this and are ready to take on this challenge.

The biggest issue i found is that, as both of you expressed is challenge does not exist and to put things to context let me site to examples.

I know one senior VP in Cisco US and obviously we cannot imagine she would find a similar challenge in Kenya, but recently when we were in Kenya she had presented a very workable project to the stakeholders which she was to oversee, but they all tended to shy away without any concrete reasons...

Secondly..i know a doctorate friend of mine who was headhunted from here to establish a creative writing center, the first of it's kind in the region in one of the private universities back home, quit their job came home, now they are pulling out of that project..(bollocks).

Lastly i met someone who hat put together a proposal, together with a consortium of investors from Europe to come and transform Webuye paper mill into a bio - facility, a project this consortium had embarked on across the world with outstanding results..well you all know our gova!!!

My observation is, it's true the challenge may not exist but when the challenge is brought in then the institutions tend to back down!! Are we scared of re-inventing the wheel or is it selfish motives??? Your thoughts please??