Maraga criticises government over Grade 10 rollout
National
By
Olivia Odhiambo
| Jan 22, 2026
United Green Movement (UGM) presidential aspirant David Maraga has criticized the Grade 10 rollout by the Ministry of Education.
Maraga said the current confusion being witnessed is a result of the government's unpreparedness to implement the Competency-Based Education (CBE).
Speaking in Kisumu, during a young aspirant's training on the UGM party’s values, Maraga argued that the program was being hastily and half-heartedly implemented by the Ministry of Education.
“Those who have reported are 75 percent, and the number keeps shifting from 70 to 75 percent every day, yet the stories and the numbers we see in the media are different. Some schools are yet to register even ten learners. The program is being implemented in a terrible and half-hazard way. We are going to lose quite a number of young people in the process,” he said.
He added: “I saw in the papers the other day the government claiming it is a pilot project, well, you will get a few who will do well, what about the majority? Losing one is bad enough. So, it is the question of implementation. Are the teachers prepared? We all know they are not prepared and this makes it unfortunate.”
The Ministry of Education on Wednesday reported that over 930,000 students have reported to senior secondary school following the closure of the reporting deadline.
This represents 90 percent of the 1.13 million learners who sat the 2025 Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA).
Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said the government teams have been deployed to track learners who have not reported to school yet.
Ogamba said the challenges of learners were different, with some lacking basic items like uniforms or books, others facing transfer issues, and some social challenges.
President William Ruto directed that schools receive all grade ten learners, stating that the government had already paid their school fees.
He directed all chiefs and their assistants to search for grade ten learners who were still at home.
But Maraga argued that the country is experiencing big challenges that can be handled in simple ways, but have been complicated by the governance system of Ruto's administration.
He said Kenya is a great country, but the plunder of resources had messed it up because of a few corrupt individuals, leaving the rest of the country in agony.
“Children are not going to school and doctors are on strike. If the country and economy is doing well, why should we have these kinds of challenges? This is because of the governance system we have, whose main intention is to loot from the people, use the same looted funds to entice them to vote for them again,” said Maraga.