Kaiti MP Joshua Kimilu has threatened to rally fellow lawmakers to boycott parliamentary proceedings if the national exams are not allocated funds in the upcoming national budget.
Addressing residents in his home county of Makueni, Kimilu decried the Treasury's decision to allocate zero funds to the education sector, warning that the move risked jeopardising the future of Kenyan children.
"President Ruto, we have seen that money has been removed from the education budget. That money must be returned; failure to which the parliamentary sittings will not proceed,'' he said.
The MP stressed the importance of education, noting that children must be allowed to sit national exams without disruption, and urged the government to prioritise funding to avoid a crisis.
''Our children must sit exams. We want our people to get development, which is being inhibited. We cannot be talking about the budget while our kids are unable to learn,'' he added.
On May 14, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said no parent would be required to pay any money for their children to sit the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams after the government failed to allocate funds for the administration of the national tests.
Speaking during an interview on Ramogi FM, Mbadi attributed the failure to allocate funds to the national examinations to an alleged abuse by officials during previous years.
According to the Treasury CS, the annual allocation of Ksh11 billion to facilitate the printing and issuance of the national examinations was too much, adding that the money was immensely misused by some government officials.
Mbadi, while addressing the matter, noted that the funding was temporarily halted to allow the government to assess several issues pertaining to the usage of the money.
However, a week later, Mbadi confirmed that parents will, from next year, start shouldering the burden of examination fees when the scrapping of the decade-long exam waiver takes effect.
While the news comes with some sense of relief following mounting anxiety amongst parents that the lifting of the waiver would take effect this year, removal of the remission will pile financial pressure on households already grappling with school fees and the high cost of living come next year.
Mbadi justified the policy shift, saying the examination subsidy has become unsustainable due to rising costs of competing priorities in the education sector amid budget deficits.
"We have to review the cost, that's why we should pay for examinations for all students, including those in private schools? We should be subsidising examinations for those who cannot afford them, especially in public schools," Mbadi said during an interview with NTV.
