HELB finally frees KNUT boss Wilson Sossion after 20 years

It has taken the Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary General Wilson Sossion 20 years to clear a loan he received as a student back in the day.

Sossion can now breath easy after he recently cleared an overdue student loan owed to the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb). Sossion cleared the loan after he paid a lump sum of Sh85,654, which had been outstanding since he graduated from Egerton University in 1993.

In a statement, Helb confirmed that indeed Mr Sossion had indeed cleared his outstanding loan.

“We kept in touch with the outspoken Knut boss to ensure he pays his loan for other needy students to also benefit from the facility,” Helb chief executive Charles Ringera said in a statement.

AS it stands, there are 85,364 loan defaulters who the agency is pursuing. These owe Helb Sh9.7 billion.

Sossion benefited from the financier while pursuing a diploma in education at Egerton University in the 90s.

It however emerged that Sossion had no idea he owed Helb money until he applied for a loan, only to be told that he had been listed by credit reference bureaus as a defaulter. This prompted him into action.

Sossion is currently undertaking his PhD at Kenya Methodist University. Helb has been sharing data with credit reference bureaus, and tracing loan cheats from government databases.

— The Nairobian Reporter