President William Ruto’s recent declaration that the government will fully cover tuition fees for all students admitted to public universities, colleges, and TVETs is, on the surface, laudable.
Access to higher education remains out of reach for many Kenyan families, perpetuating social imbalances and reserving economic mobility for a privileged few. In light of these disparities, any genuine effort to address them deserves praise. However, most Kenyans view the latest pronouncement with scepticism.
This public mistrust can't be faulted. In the past four years, Dr Ruto has earned a notorious reputation for setting grand timelines that rarely materialise, earning him the informal sobriquet “in six months”, which is his standard timeframe for promising transformative projects that remain unfulfilled years later. To now announce universal, 100 per cent State-funded tertiary education without a clear plan raises a question: Is this a genuine policy commitment, or merely a convenient political manoeuvre intended to charm voters ahead of the landmark 2027 General Election?
The Student-Centred Funding Model was introduced in 2023 to replace the Differentiated Unit Cost model and was aggressively marketed as a permanent solution to the sector’s long standing financial woes. Yet, rather than achieve that noble goal, its new convoluted bands and flawed Means Testing Instrument have ended up locking out thousands of vulnerable students while leaving public universities groaning under crippling debts.
Basic education has its own problems that continue to grow. Capitation for both primary and secondary education, legally meant to support young learners, has been systematically slashed from Sh 22,224 to about Sh15,000 per student, and even these reduced sums arrive late. Today, secondary schools operate on shoe-string budgets, which has resulted in school principals wanting to effect an increase in school fees, a burden that will be passed on to struggling parents.
How can the government promise to fully fund tertiary education when it cannot manage obligations already written into law? Beyond education, the public sector is buckling under fiscal distress. The Social Health Authority remains erratic, while medical practitioners are forced into recurring strikes over unpaid dues, with some healthcare workers going months without salary as both tiers of government claim the coffers are empty.
With the Kenya Revenue Authority consistently falling short of revenue targets and national debt swallowing the lion’s share of the annual budget, the basic arithmetic simply does not add up. Where exactly will this government find the billions needed to finance free university education? And even if funds are somehow gathered in the short term, how sustainable is such an expenditure in a struggling economy?
As 2027 approaches, Kenyans can no longer afford to feast on political rhetoric. If the President intends to prove that this promise is more than a calculated electoral ruse, he must present the nation with a realistic, transparent financial ledger rather than another campaign declaration. The youth need viable pathways to their future, not recycled political illusions.
