Editor's Review

President Ruto said the government was planning to disband HELB and replace it with another funding entity.

Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has asked President William Ruto to cease the government's plan to abolish the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).

In a tweet on Tuesday, January 3, the lawmaker claimed that university students were poor and thus dependent on the HELB funds.

"Ruto, HELB wachana nayo Kabisa. Comrades are poor & only education will save them from the yoke of poverty. For we live in an hour of change & challenge, decade of hope & fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases the greater our ignorance unfolds," Babu Owino said.

His remarks come after a section of Azimio leaders questioned the plan by President Ruto to disband HELB.

Read More

  1. Government Issues New Directive to Chiefs
  2. Eugene Walamwa and Kalonzo Hint at Formation of New Political Outfit
  3. Babu Owino Gives Update on Blogger Aoko Otieno's Whereabouts
President William Ruto.

"As you disband HELB, what happens to the poor university students who are due to report for their new semester this month? Do they also defer their studies for six months, which is historic?" National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi posed.

The Head of State on January 1 said that HELB was to be disbanded and replaced with the National Skill and Funding Council (NSFC).

He said NSFC would double the HELB funding and also mobilize bursaries and scholarships for university students.

“Instead of different funding systems, the government will establish the National Skill and Funding Council (NSFC) that will amalgamate the existing funding bodies,” the president said.