The irony of Ruto rooting for new public varsities as older ones drown in Sh100b debt

Education CS Julius Migos Ogamba and PS Higher Education PS Beatrice Inyangala at Bunge Towers, Nairobi on April 25, 2025. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

President William Ruto is pushing ahead with the creation of new universities even as public institutions are sinking under a crushing Sh100 billion debt, with at least 11 already technically insolvent and struggling to stay afloat.

The expansion drive, which has seen new universities chartered and others upgraded across the country, is now colliding head-on with a worsening financial crisis  that is choking existing institutions, delaying salaries, and forcing some to operate on the brink of collapse.