Decentralise Higher Education Loans Board to step up fairness

While the current HELB Bill has certain laudable inputs, it fails to address the critical issue of decentralisation of the studunts’ loan agency to the county level. At the moment, all university students from all over the country troop to Anniversary Towers in Nairobi, where HELB is located to seek information about loans and present applications. This is not only unfair, cumbersome and time wasting but is also an unjust way of determining who among the applicants truly deserves education loan from HELB.

In the fourth schedule of the Constitution, the duty and obligation of the National Government in the education sector include, inter alia, setting education policy, standards, curricula, examinations, granting of university charters and provision of Public University Education. This has to be realised in conformity with Article 21 (Implementation of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) and Article 46 (Consumer Rights) of the Constitution. In other words, the National Government is obligated to ensure provision of education services of reasonable quality as well as the necessary information related to such services.