Most universities in Kenya are on strike, citing low financial support from the government since the introduction of a new funding model in 2023 by the president. According to the president, the new model was aiming to better align support students according to their financial needs.
The president changed the system from Higher Education Loan Board (HELB) to Higher Education Funding (HEF), which would apply the criteria of household income through the Means Testing Instrument to evaluate each student. Depending on this evaluation method, five income bands are created, with funding coming from a mix of government scholarships, loans from HELB, and expected family contributions. A 70% scholarship would be granted to those from lowest-income families, and a 25% loan would be given to those from high-income families.
This method was also introduced to eliminate direct university capitation by the government. Staff and lecturers now decry inadequate funds to operate institutions as their salaries are being delayed, and this has led to a lot of strain among the workers to cater for their living to a point of strike. The Kenyan government seems to have heard their decry and has suspended the funding model and opted to use the old model to bring the activities to order.
By Nairobi