Kimilili Member of Parliament Didmus Barasa has officially declared his intention to contest the Bungoma gubernatorial seat, positioning education as the cornerstone of his campaign. The lawmaker made his ambitions public after holding extensive consultations with more than 3,000 junior secondary school teachers across the county, using the engagement to unveil a wide-ranging agenda aimed at transforming governance in western Kenya’s most populous county.
On the education front, Barasa is proposing a significant overhaul of how young learners are nourished and supported. He wants to scrap the current ECDE feeding programme and replace it with a revived “Nyayo milk” scheme that would supply dairy products to pupils twice a week, covering learners from the early childhood stage all the way through Grade 9. The initiative would also extend milk benefits to pregnant and lactating women in the county. To underpin the plan, Barasa says he would fast-track the completion of a long-stalled milk processing plant in Webuye, turning the idle facility into the engine of the entire programme.
Teacher welfare forms another central pillar of the MP’s pitch. He committed to enforcing existing legislation that requires retired teachers to receive their dues within 90 days of leaving service — a pledge that landed well among educators who have long complained about delayed pension payments. He also proposed a mandatory six-month notice period before any teacher transfer, giving staff and their families adequate time to prepare. Barasa went further, calling for a five-year moratorium on JSS transfers, arguing that lasting institutional stability cannot be built while schools are still settling into the new curriculum framework.
Beyond classrooms, Barasa outlined plans touching healthcare and agriculture. He wants to introduce private wings inside public hospitals, a move he argues will raise service quality without displacing patients from public facilities. On farming, he raised the alarm over maize growers in the county being exploited by middlemen offering well below market prices, suggesting the county government would need to intervene on their behalf. He also pledged to rebuild village polytechnics as functioning centres of vocational training for youth.
Infrastructure and access to government services also featured prominently. Among his proposals is establishing a Huduma Centre in Kimilili, which would allow residents to obtain birth certificates and access key national government services locally, sparing them the expense and inconvenience of travelling to distant offices for routine paperwork.
The teaching fraternity in Bungoma has responded warmly to Barasa’s overtures. Augustine Luketelo, the county secretary of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), said educators in the region are ready to support the MP’s gubernatorial bid. Luketelo expressed confidence that Barasa, having demonstrated a genuine understanding of the challenges facing schools, would place education at the top of his agenda if elected governor.
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