University students cancel protest over Helb money

Sonu Chairman Babu Owino

NAIROBI, KENYA: A planned protest by university students over a delay to release Higher Education Loan Board (HELB) money has been postponed.

 Sonu chairman Babu Owino who was coordinating the strike said they will now wait until Wednesday when the ministry and Helb say they will have released all the money.

“We will hold a meeting with Helb today (Monday) because they say they have disbursed the money. We will then wait to see if the money will be released by Wednesday as promised.

A crisis meeting between Helb officials and education PS Belio Kipsang was held Sunday and agreed that allocations and award to all successful students was to be completed by Tuesday.

The successful students will get text messages to confirm their money is in.

There were 110,000 applications made to Helb for loans, 70,000 will benefit from the Sh2.5 billion loan.

The students had planned to block major roads in Nairobi.

According to the plan the students were to block roads near Kikuyu campus, Upper Kabete, Lower Kabete, Kenya Science, Kenyatta National Hospital, Main Campus and Chiromo Campus.