President William Ruto has directed all teachers and education officials to cease demanding school fees from parents as schools reopen.
Speaking at a roadside rally in Busia County on Sunday, the Head of State announced that his government had already released Ksh62 billion, enough to cover all stages of learning.
"I want to say this for the avoidance of any doubt. We have released, in the last one month, Ksh62 billion. Money for primary school, Junior Secondary School, TVETs and universities. We have released Ksh10 billion for bursaries for all our needy students," he told the crowd.
"I want to ask as a directive, no education official of any place shall demand for fees from any parent. The government has made its commitment, we have given enough money to make sure that all our children go to school and they learn. Therefore, there will be no requirement by parents for them to pay any extra fees."
He argued that some principals were asking parents to pay school fees under the pretense that capitation was yet to reflect in their accounts.
"I say that because there are cunning people still asking parents for money. We have released JSS money as the government even that for primary and secondary schools as well as TVETs and universities," he added.
The directive comes a week after parents lamented over a spike in the cost of school supplies including stationeries and bedding.
Reports emerged that some schools had conspired with specific shops where they directed parents to buy supplies for their students.
On the third day of January, the government announced that it had released a Ksh31 billion capitation for primary and secondary schools.
Ksh4.74 billion of the total sum was disbursed to the State Department for Basic Education towards the facilitation of free primary education for Term 1.
From the funding, the State also set aside Ksh7.6 billion as capitation for Junior Secondary Schools (JSS).
A week later, the State also released an additional Ksh12 billion aimed at guaranteeing the transition of students into Junior Secondary Schools and improve the education system.
"We want to make sure that our education system is appropriately grounded on a strong foundation upon which to build the process of Kenya," he stated at the time.
