County governors have pushed back against criticism of their handling of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE), attributing challenges to inadequate resources provided under the 2010 Constitution.
Under the Constitution, county governments are responsible for pre-primary education, childcare facilities, school feeding programmes, infrastructure development, and recruitment of ECDE teachers. However, devolved units were recently criticised for falling short, particularly in providing adequate infrastructure.
“Regrettably, pre-primary learning in some counties in this country is still being held under trees and dilapidated structures. I urge this House to exercise its oversight mandate to ensure county integrated development plans prioritise the construction of child-friendly, safe and modern ECDE centres around the country,” said Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok during the Senate Assessment and Planning Retreat in Naivasha.
He also faulted counties for neglecting the school feeding programme and the welfare of ECDE teachers, who serve around four million learners. “The current state of our ECDE teachers is unacceptable. In many counties, there are delayed salaries, lack of pension schemes, and a take-it-or-leave-it volunteer mentality towards these professionals,” he said, urging stronger Senate oversight.
In response, Council of Governors Education Committee chairperson and Baringo Governor Erick Mutai defended the counties, noting that the ECDE function was never costed at the time of devolution.
“No attendant resources were provided for this function from day one. The function was given to counties and there was no costing for the same,” he said. Mutai added that counties have been striving to meet expectations using sharable revenue and own-source revenue, investing in new classrooms and improving access to pre-primary education.
“Children were learning under trees, but today we reflect with joy that we have an increased access as of 2025 of 3.8 per cent, rising to 2,953,207 learners,” he said. He noted that this growth was supported by a 2.5 per cent increase in the number of schools, bringing the total to 48,721 ECDE classrooms nationwide, with over 5,950 new classrooms constructed in 2025 alone.
On teacher recruitment, Mutai said counties have built the workforce from scratch, hiring over 50,104 pre-primary teachers since devolution. “When devolution happened, most ECDE teachers were not recognised anywhere, most were not trained, and there were no functional systems in both personnel and infrastructure,” he said.
He added that counties continue to supply learning materials, including textbooks, tables, chairs, and feeding programmes. Working with development partners, counties have developed a school feeding policy aimed at rolling out a unified nutritious meals programme for ECDE learners across all 47 counties.
On Vocational Training Colleges (VTCs), Mutai said counties have prioritised establishing centres to support continuous professional development for ECDE educators, although the function remains financially burdensome. “Previously, the national government provided a Sh5 billion conditional grant, but this funding was withdrawn around 2018. VTCs have been left to struggle under limited county resources,” he said.
Senate Standing Committee on Education chairperson Betty Montet acknowledged the challenges but said progress is being made. “The matter on ECDE on the ground has not been very rosy. It has been very unfortunate, very discouraging, but governors are waking up to do better. Things are changing, and we hope in the next six months things will be different,” she said.
