The Ministry of Education has dismissed reports claiming that boarding fees in public senior schools have been increased ahead of the January 2026 reopening.
In a statement on Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba termed the reports misleading and urged parents to disregard them.
Ogamba clarified that there has been no revision of the boarding fees or any other charges payable by learners in public senior schools, adding that the current rates set by the ministry remain in force.
“Our attention has been drawn to reports in sections of the media to the effect that boarding fees payable by learners in public senior schools have been revised upwards,” the statement read in part.
Adding that: “Parents, learners, and the general public are hereby notified that there has been no revision of boarding fees.”
The CS reaffirmed that the government remains committed to supporting learners through the capitation programme. He noted that the approved capitation rate for senior schools remains Ksh22,244 per learner per year.
Ogamba further assured parents that the government would continue fulfilling its constitutional duty to make education affordable and accessible to all learners.
The clarification comes amid reports that the government was in the process of revising the fees upwards due to budget constraints that have faced the critical sector.
The reports suggested that the government had announced a standard annual fee of Ksh53,000 for all boarding senior secondary schools in the country, a shift away from the previous school-to-school model, a position the CS has denied.
Earlier, the High Court, on June 16 this year, ruled that no school head would be allowed to charge these levies without a green light from the Education CS, following a petition lodged by a parent from one of the parents from a premier school in Nairobi.
In many schools in Kenya, levies are often charged for specific purposes like covering operational costs, infrastructure development, extracurricular activities, money for exams, development projects, lunch programmes, or remedial classes.
Some principals, however, have allegedly been exploiting loopholes to impose unauthorised charges, a practice that stakeholders have urged the government to curb to end the vice.
