- Thousands of freshmen have entered university while uncertainty continues over how their education will be financed.
- Yabesh Onwonga argues that funding reforms cannot be implemented at the expense of vulnerable students.
- He warns that prolonged uncertainty risks turning access to university into another measure of household wealth.
There is something deeply disturbing about telling thousands of young Kenyans to report to university and then asking them to wait and see how they will pay for it.
That is not a funding policy. It is a gamble with human lives.
Higher Education Principal Secretary Beatrice Inyangala says students may have to wait longer for clarity on funding as the Government works through proposed changes to the financing system. Meanwhile, universities are admitting first-year students, parents are scrambling for money and young people who have earned their places in higher education are confronting a question no student should have to ask: Can I actually afford to stay here?
The Government says it will guide students once the transition is finalised.
But education cannot run on “we shall guide you”.
A hungry student cannot pay rent with reassurance. A university cannot balance its books with promises. A parent who has sold livestock, borrowed money or exhausted savings cannot be told to wait indefinitely while bureaucrats finish designing a system.
The timing is particularly brutal.
According to the Ministry, about 195,000 of the expected 200,000 government-placed first-year students had already reported. At the same time, the proposed Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, is still before Parliament. The Government wants to overhaul the financing model, with proposals that would fundamentally change how students receive Government support.
In other words, students have arrived before the rules of the game are settled.
That is an extraordinary way to run a national education system.
The Government cannot keep announcing ambitious reforms first and figuring out the financing later.
This is not a road project where construction can pause while officials search for money. These are human beings. A university admission letter can represent the culmination of years of sacrifice by a family. For a poor household, it can be the difference between generational transformation and another generation trapped in poverty.
The numbers should embarrass policymakers.
Universities Fund data shows that 159,551 university students had completed funding applications by August 20. Of these, 149,761 had applied for combined scholarship and loan support, while 642 had applied for scholarships only.
That is not a minor accounting problem.
It is a warning siren.
And the crisis does not stop with students.
Universities themselves are under enormous financial pressure. Earlier parliamentary scrutiny revealed that the higher education financing mechanism has failed to match the requirements of the student-centred funding model, leaving billions of shillings in funding gaps.
So what exactly is the Government asking universities to do?
Admit students.
Teach them.
House them.
Pay lecturers.
Run laboratories.
Maintain facilities.
And somehow survive while waiting for money that may or may not arrive on time.
That is not reform. That is institutional strangulation.
Poor students risk paying the highest price
The most dangerous consequence will be inequality.
Wealthier students will wait.
Poor students will drop out.
Those with parents capable of paying fees, rent and food will continue their education. Those from struggling households will be pushed towards deferment, casual work, debt or outright abandonment of their dreams.
Then Kenya will proudly announce rising university enrolment while quietly producing a generation that entered university but could not afford to remain there.
That would be a national disgrace.
The proposed new funding system may eventually have merit. Government support for every eligible student sounds attractive. But good intentions do not pay tuition bills. Parliament must scrutinise the financing architecture, not simply the political promises surrounding it.
And the Ministry must stop treating uncertainty as a communication problem.
It is a policy problem.
Students deserve dates, figures, eligibility rules and clear guarantees. Universities deserve predictable funding. Parents deserve to know what they are expected to pay. Parliament deserves honest numbers.
Above all, young Kenyans deserve better than being told to “wait a little longer.”
They have already waited years for admission.
They have worked for their grades.
Their families have sacrificed.
Now the State must do its part.
Kenya cannot preach education as the engine of transformation while making poverty the entrance barrier to university.
If the Government cannot finance the promises it makes, it should stop making them.
A nation that can find money for political priorities but cannot provide certainty to its students has a problem far deeper than a funding deficit.
It has a question of priorities.
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And the students are watching.
By Yabesh Onwonga
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