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Ole Kiyiapi questions govt plan to scrap free education
25th July, 2025 03:04 PM
Former presidential candidate James Ole Kiyiapi has questioned the government’s plan to scrap free education in the country.
In a statement on Friday, July 25, 2025, Kiyiapi wondered what the government was funding with the ambitious Ksh4 trillion budget when it says it can no longer fund free education.
The Education CS says that the government can no longer sustain education funding. High school and primary school capitations have remained at the same levels for over 10 years. The Budget of Ksh4 trillion is the highest in the country’s history. What exactly is he funding with all that money?” Kiyiapi posed.
Constrained education budget
On Thursday, July 24, 2025, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi admitted to the members of the Education Committee that the government could no longer fund free secondary and primary education in the country.
“The truth of the matter is, we don’t have the capacity to finance Free Primary Education and Free Day Secondary education. Let us not live a lie; the budget we approve cannot provide the Sh22,244 required per learner. This is not possible,” Mbadi said,
“The thing is, we have been underfunding the education sector. The government is failing to do this because of other competing needs such as the debt repayments, which we have been making as they are too high compared to before,” he added.
School capitation
Mbadi stated that out of the Ksh15,042 required per learner for junior school, the government has been disbursing Ksh10,000. Out of the Ksh22,244 required per learner for secondary schools, they have been disbursing approximately Ksh16,900. Only the Ksh1,420 required for primary schools was disbursed in full.
He further explained that the 80 per cent budget the ministry has been sending to schools is inadequate to finance all the learners, owing to the fact that the enrolment has been increasing while the capitation has remained the same.
He explained that the Government has been operating in a constrained fiscal environment, worsened by expenditure pressures for critical interventions in security and emergency interventions
