Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has said that the Kenyan government will no longer fund public universities and colleges.
Speaking on Saturday at the Dedan Kimathi University of Science and Technology in Nyeri County, CS Machogu stated that the current financial crisis affecting the institutions necessitated the establishment of alternative sources of income in order to relieve pressure on the government.
He thus urged public institutions of higher learning to embrace research, innovation, and technology in order to generate their own income, as the state is about to withdraw its financial support.
“In Kenya, education takes about 25.9 per cent and we have to find other ways of creating and generating revenues for universities and they have to look at other revenues,” he said.
“I’m going to move around each and every university in Kenya because a number is faced with financial problems and we are encouraging that they must generate their own income because the exchequer as it is now is not going to continue funding more.”
The CS announcement comes as major universities across the country are on strike due to a lack of funds.
Universities Fund Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Geoffrey Monari recently stated that the number of students qualifying for universities is increasing year after year, making it unsustainable for the government to increase financial support for the institutions.
‘’The funding requirement for 2022 cohort of 145,145 students is Ksh.32.7 million while available funds are Ksh.12.6 million. The incoming cohort is larger than the graduates exiting by 52, 195 hence it’s expected that the funding requirements will increase,” noted Monari.
The CEO explained that the situation has been exacerbated by the 100% transition for students with a C+ or higher, which has increased access to universities.
In 2019, 11 universities were implicated in a Ksh.9.7 billion tax evasion scheme that threatened their closure.
Egerton University and Moi University are among the top institutions dealing with a management crisis after lecturers went on strike over pay cuts.
