National Treasury CS John Mbadi before National Assembly Committee on Education on Thursday, July 24. 2025. Photo: John Mbadi X.
Appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee, National Treasury CS John Mbadi confirmed the concerns raised by the Committee on reduction of secondary schools capitation from KSh 22, 224 to KSh 16,900 per year.
According to Mbadi, the previous KSh 22,224 per student was very high with the rising number of students, which cannot be sustained by the current budget cannot sustain free education in the country.
Mbadi further stated the government is providing tuition and operational fee in both primary and junior school of KSh 1,420 and KSh 15,042 respectively.
“However, due to constraints in the fiscal space and other emerging priorities in the education sector, updating these rates might be untenable. We are getting more children in our schools, and the revenue performance is not increasing at a faster pace. The rates may look low, but again, we have to operate within the fiscal framework,” he stated.
Mbadi however said that the government will consider the allocation if revenue performance improves.
His colleague from the Ministry of Education Julius Ogamba echoing sentiments by Mbadi added that the Ministry has failed to meet the allocation in the last four years due to increasing number of students.
“The ministry has taken steps to ensure timely disbursement of capitation at a ratio of 50:20:30 across the first, second, and third terms,” he added.
The revelation by the two CSs putting the sector at a looming disruption of learning activities, as head of schools decry fund shortage and failure to deliver quality education to students, as schools need funds to be run. Additionally, before the threatening revelation, High Court ruling had declared school levies irregular.
In the recently read budget for 2025/2026 Financial year, Education received the lion share from the budget of KSh 702.7 billion of the total budget, which Mbadi stated that it would only fund teachers’ salaries, recruitment of interns, support free basic education, TVET training, the junior secondary transition, capitation, school feeding, and exam subsidies.
Mbadi further hinting to the Committee that the government is coming up with measures to curb underfunding witnessed in Universities. Among the measures include staff layoffs, closure of satellite campuses, and outsourcing in underfunded institutions as government cannot meet sponsored students’ needs.
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