OPINION: The HELB Funding Model Exposes Policy Failure in Kenya’s Education Sector

By Dr. Luchetu Likaka

The President’s latest acknowledgment that the university funding model is fundamentally flawed creates a glaring self-contradiction. It also vindicates the frustrations Kenyans have expressed from the very beginning.

For months, students, parents, universities and education stakeholders have complained bitterly. They argue that the model is haphazardly designed, opaque in implementation and disconnected from socio-economic realities facing ordinary learners.

However, the government did not act on these concerns early enough. Instead, it defended the framework with confidence and dismissed criticism as resistance to reform. Today, the same administration admits the weaknesses that citizens warned about from the outset.

The biggest concern has never been resistance to change. Instead, it is the reckless manner in which the policy was introduced. A funding model affecting millions of students required consultation, pilot testing, legal clarity and institutional preparedness.

Instead, the government left learners in confusion. Students faced unclear categorisation bands, delayed disbursements, inconsistent fee structures and uncertainty about their academic future.

As a result, vulnerable students from struggling households suffered the most. Many could not report to university, while others failed to sustain learning. The system ignored the realities of poverty and inequality in Kenya.

What makes the situation more troubling is the attempt to present the overhaul as a fresh act of responsiveness. In reality, the government is retreating after sustained public pressure exposed the model’s weaknesses. Public policy should not operate as trial and error, where citizens bear the cost first.

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Policy Formulation Gaps in Education Reform

This contradiction also raises deeper governance concerns about policy formulation in Kenya. Why do major reforms often launch before systems are fully ready? Why do stakeholders get consulted after implementation instead of before?

A government that genuinely prioritises education must build policies on evidence, participation, and social realities, not political urgency and public relations narratives.

The HELB funding crisis reflects a broader governance culture where policy rollout often takes precedence over policy preparedness.

Conferences that Fail to Deliver Reforms

Equally disappointing is the continued reliance on high-profile education conferences and national dialogues whose outcomes rarely translate into concrete reforms.

Year after year, stakeholders gather in hotels and convention halls to discuss the future of education, generate recommendations, and issue communiqués. Yet the lived realities of learners remain unchanged. Students do not need endless symposiums, speeches and declarations.

They need functional systems, timely funding, affordable education and policies backed by enforceable regulations and institutional accountability.

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Ultimately, the dismissal of these education conferences stems from one painful reality: their proposals remain mere suggestions rather than binding commitments capable of transforming the education sector.

Until recommendations translate into responsive laws, practical regulations and sustainable funding structures, such gatherings risk becoming ceremonial exercises detached from the struggles of ordinary learners.

Kenya’s education system does not lack ideas; instead, it lacks the political will, consistency and seriousness required to implement solutions that genuinely protect the future of students.

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