Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi vows to act on Deputy President William Ruto's directive

Kenya: The Ministry of Education will ensure school fees does not exceed Sh55,000 per year, Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has said.

Last week, Deputy President William Ruto was angered by the high school fees charged by some schools in the country and asked the ministry to take action against schools found charging exorbitant fees. Mr Ruto said fees in public secondary schools must not exceed Sh55,000 per year.

“Those charging Sh100,000 and above must be made to explain where they take all that money,” he said and directed Prof Kaimenyi to issue fees guidelines by the end of this week.

“Those guidelines must be adhered to by all public schools irrespective of whether they are national or not,” he added.

Kaimenyi and his Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang have been under immense pressure to issue a revised fees structure for this year.

And yesterday, Kaimenyi said it was in the ministry’s interests to have the cost of fees reduced to allow more children access secondary school.

“There is no doubt that we shall do what the DP said. But kindly allow us time to do it,” he said.

Members of Parliament have petitioned the ministry over school fees and demanded immediate implementation of the Kilemi Mwiria report. Elimu Yetu Coalition (EYC) Executive Director Janet Ouko led a major protest outside Jogoo House last week asking the CS to issue guidelines.

Rogue principals

EYC threatened on Tuesday to stage another protest outside Kaimenyi’s office to force him to comply with the directive.

“EYC welcomes the remarks from the Presidency. The coalition offers to follow up and thus gives the Ministry of Education one week to not only gazette the fees structures as guided by the Deputy President but to also bring to book rogue school heads operating with impunity,” said Ms Ouko.

Kenya National Association of Parents Secretary General Musau Ndunda however said before the ministry issued any school fees policy, it must meet with the stakeholders because there could be head teachers that will re-introduce the same fees in a different way.

And earlier on Tuesday, 25 MPs criticised Kaimenyi for what they said was failure to deal with “rogue high school principals” who were charging exorbitant school fees for students joining Form One. They said school heads charging above the recommended maximum of Sh51,000 ought to be penalised.

“We’re seeing a lot of helplessness from the ministry, yet this is a report that expended a lot of intellectual and material resources of the State. We don’t want Kaimenyi to keep making noise at Jogoo House. We want action on the ground,” said Kabando wa Kabando (Mukurweini).

Story by Augustine Oduor, Rawlings Otieno and Alphonce Shiundu