Anxiety grips the country as parents and hundreds of thousands of children are expected to return to school this week, despite the country's difficult economic times, which are fraught with uncertainty.
With the increased hikes in the country's fuel prices, transportation for students returning to school for the second term has nearly doubled from the first term, and also from three months ago.
It is thus important for the government to understand that an increase in fuel prices automatically leads to an increase in the prices of basic commodities, including stationery.
With rising poverty rates, more families are finding it difficult to put food on the table at the end of the day. As a result, the majority of children arrive at school hungry and spend the entire day without food.
The free primary and secondary education from the Mwai Kibaki government has turned out to be not truly free as the cost extends beyond fees.
Public schools have diluted the performance of the schools to expanding facilities and increasing the number of teachers in order to have a ratio of facilities which corresponds to the number of teachers to students.
Letter from Aggrey Karani, Rongo.
