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Address capitation crisis

Julius Ogamba

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba (left) and National Chairman, Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association Willy Kuria during the 48thKESSHA Annual National Conference for in Mombasa on June 25, 2025.

Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The ripple effect is that many children from needy backgrounds have had to drop out of school.
  • Education now risks becoming a limited commodity only available to those who can afford it.

Watching the speeches from the just concluded Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association conference held in Mombasa between June 22nd and 27th, I somehow hoped that there would be a declaration of a solution to the looming crisis of school funding.

It is the parent who bears the brunt of unmet budgetary expectations. Already schools have started imposing extra levies to cater for the reduced remittances from the government.

Whereas some years ago schools would give parents some leeway to clear fees, nowadays schools demand 100 per cent fee clearance before learners report to school. The ripple effect is that many children from needy backgrounds have had to drop out of school.

In our social groupings and teacher discourses, we have noted significant absenteeism and dropouts especially between 2023 and 2025. This has culminated in considerable decline in student population across schools, thanks to the new and stricter fee clearance rules in place.

Economic and sexual exploitation

What follows is susceptibility to teen pregnancies, child labour and other forms of economic and sexual exploitation emanating from lack of care and protection, a role played by schools. It gets more dire for orphans and children from broken families as they are prone to higher degrees of maltreatment.

If the situation persists, education will no longer be a right but a limited commodity only available to those who can afford it, locking out many who would have benefitted from the Free Primary Education and the Free Day Secondary Education. 

If basic education becomes optional and available only to a section of Kenyans, the gap between the rich and the poor will become insurmountably big. Since the poor will need to survive somehow, crime rates will hit fever pitch, and with no solution in sight, the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich. 

Wornicks Gisemba is a teacher at Nkoile Boys High School. He is also an author and editor. [email protected]. www.wornicks.co.ke