Ruto's university funding U-turn exposes crisis of his own making

President William Ruto might be presenting himself as the saviour to thousands of university students grappling with the woes of the university funding model that has placed learning on the edge, but stakeholders believe he is the architect of the woes facing the university sector.

When he speaks, he breathes hope and offers solutions, appearing to have found the final piece of the puzzle that is ailing the education sector as the Government moves with speed to resolve the crisis in the funding model.

But beneath this renewed vigour, observers believe Ruto has adopted an arsonist-as-firefighter strategy to manage public emotions — a man whose administration has deliberately created a crisis in the education sector but is now in the driving seat, presenting itself as the saviour.

Prior to introducing the Student-Centred Funding Model three years ago, the proposals had triggered warnings from education experts and mounting complaints from students and universities. Still, the Government proceeded with the rollout of the system.

On Thursday, a section of Misambi residents in Homa Bay County cheered as the President presented what he described as a game-changer to transform student funding.

“We have come up with a new funding model that will ensure that every child in the country does not miss an opportunity to proceed with his education. Going forward, the education of every child will not be determined by the ability of the parent to pay but on the ability of the student to learn,” he said.

To the residents, the saviour of the student-funding crisis had arrived. On the flip side, Ruto shifted blame to former President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom he claimed had failed in the education sector.

The reversal by Ruto’s administration has put the Government under scrutiny over whether it is solving a crisis it helped create through its 2023 funding reforms, after critics warned at the time that the new system could leave universities starved of funds and families unable to meet the cost of education.

The latest proposal promises full Government funding for every student admitted to a public university or college, regardless of family background, marking a sharp departure from the means-tested system introduced by the same administration.

Ruto is now using Parliament to legislate the new approach through the Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, which is undergoing public hearings.

But professionals are ringing alarm bells again over the opaque nature of some of the proposals.

Dr Tom Onyango, a university lecturer at Rongo University, said the developments had created uncertainty.

“In a nutshell, it is a gamble. It is a case of saying one thing today and something different the following day. There is no concrete and consistent approach, and this makes it very difficult for students, parents and other stakeholders to know what to expect at any given time.

In higher education funding, there is a lack of clarity on the specific areas to be assessed, a consistent formula for determining who qualifies for what level of support, and a uniform approach to funding. Without these, the system remains difficult for families to understand and plan around.”

During his visit to Nyanza this week, Ruto defended the proposed reforms, saying they would address the disconnect between student placement and financing.

He said students had previously been placed in universities without adequate consideration of how their education would be financed.

“The reason why we are finally consolidating placement, funding, and higher education together in one piece of legislation is so that we can avoid what has happened in the past,” Ruto said at Kisumu State Lodge on Tuesday.

But the President’s admission that the previous model did not work has reopened questions about why the Government is now dismantling a system it introduced and defended for years.

“We tried the differentiated model. It didn't work because it made most of our universities almost close down. While we promised 80 per cent funding, we went down to 40 per cent and most universities suffered,” Ruto said.

The Student-Centred Funding Model replaced the Differentiated Unit Cost system in 2023 and categorised students into five bands based on household income and assessed financial need.

The bands determined the level of Government scholarships, loans and household contributions towards university and TVET education.

The Government presented the model as a way of directing more resources to students from poor households while making higher education financing more sustainable.

But the rollout was accompanied by concerns over means-testing, affordability and whether the Government would provide universities with the money they needed.

Prof XN Iraki of the University of Nairobi argues that the lack of clarity in the funding model is causing anxiety among stakeholders.

“Our education sector has the highest budgetary allocation, but funding for higher education has no clarity and has gone through too many changes. We need clarity and predictability for parents and students, more so with the transition to Competency-Based Education (CBE).

Education expert and lawyer Ken Echesa was among those who warned about the consequences before the model was implemented.

Speaking in May 2023, Echesa cautioned that the Government’s funding commitment might not be realised.

“The government has committed to fund 53% of university education, chances are it may end up funding 10 percent or 7 per cent, and this is what will cripple universities because government funding will not be forthcoming,” he said.

Echesa now says his concerns have been realised, arguing that the model has disadvantaged some students.

“My concern is that the new funding model was rushed. This new funding model has disadvantaged a number of students," Echesa stated.

Speaking after Ruto’s U-turn, Echesa also criticised the Government’s broader record on education.

“If I were to base on capitation and resourcing of education in this country, both at basic level, tertiary level, and higher education, the President has performed very poorly. Since the inception of the junior secondary, we do not have adequate resources, adequate infrastructure to implement this new curriculum,” Echesa said.

The problems with the Ruto model became visible during its implementation.

In August 2024, the Ministry of Education disclosed that 12,958 students had appealed for re-categorisation after arguing that their funding bands did not reflect their financial circumstances.

The Government had categorised 127,591 of 134,029 applications at the time, with students placed in five bands according to assessed need.

The appeals exposed one of the central difficulties of the system — determining a student’s ability to pay through means-testing.

Experts had also criticised the Means Testing Instrument, arguing that social stigma and inadequate civic education could result in families providing inaccurate information and students being placed in inappropriate funding categories.

The pressure was not limited to students.

Public universities have continued to face severe financial difficulties, with a Controller of Budget report putting their combined debt at Sh69.23 billion by June 2025.

The crisis has unfolded as demand for university education continues to rise. According to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service, 270,715 candidates qualified for degree programmes after sitting the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations.

It is against this backdrop that the Government has now returned with a markedly different promise.

In July, Ruto started admitting failure when he announced that students admitted to public universities and colleges from the September 2026 intake would receive full Government funding regardless of their family background.

“Going forward, any student, so long as they have passed their examinations and they have been placed in a college or university, will get full funding for their higher education,” he said.

The announcement effectively abandoned the central principle of the 2023 model — that the amount of Government support should depend on a student’s assessed financial need.

The Government is now seeking to give the new approach a legal foundation through the Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, 2026.

The National Assembly Education Committee, chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly, began public hearings on six education reform Bills on Monday.

The hearings are scheduled to run across 31 counties until September 25.

The Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill proposes changes to student placement and financing and would establish a Tertiary Education Funding Authority to coordinate financing functions.

Critics are questioning the timing of the reversal, which has left the Government facing questions over accountability for the intervening years.

There are also questions over what “full funding” will mean in practice. Under the proposed Bill, the new funding authority would still recover education loans from employed graduates, with deductions capped at 25 per cent of their earnings.

Meanwhile, the transition is taking place as students continue to seek financial assistance under the existing system.

Former Law Society of Kenya president Faith Odhiambo is among those who have questioned the timing of the latest promise.

“The promise that university will now be free for all sounds like progress, but when it comes months to an election, after years of complaints about a broken funding model, Kenyans are entitled to ask, is this policy or politics?” she said.

Political analyst David Owino has similarly described the changes as part of a pattern of policy reversals by the Ruto administration, arguing that the Government has repeatedly changed direction after introducing contentious policies.

"For students and universities, the immediate concern is whether the latest promise will translate into predictable funding, while for the Government, the political and policy challenge is explaining why a model introduced three years ago had to be dismantled after warnings that its shortcomings could deepen the very crisis it now promises to solve," Owino stated.

The Government, however, disputes the suggestion that the latest reforms amount to an admission of failure.