Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has announced that the National Treasury will on Tuesday, August 26, release school capitation funds to the Ministry of Education.
Speaking on Monday, August 25, during the launch of the FY 2026/27 and the Medium-Term Budget Preparation Process at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), Mbadi said the Treasury will release a total of Ksh23 billion to the Education Ministry.
CS Mbadi noted that out of the Ksh23 billion, 17 billion is meant for school capitation, while 5.9 billion will cater for national examinations.
"We want to get more resources for capitation so that our children can go to school, we want to give more money to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), and by the way, tomorrow we are releasing the money to the Ministry of Education, we are giving Ksh17 billion plus Ksh5.9 billion which is for examination that is Ksh23 billion,” said Mbadi.
The Treasury CS also announced that the ministry will release funds for HELB within the week, ahead of the September intake.
Read More
“We will also look for money for HELB this week so that our children can go to school,” CS Mbadi added.
At the same time, Mbadi said the government has not been disbursing sufficient funds for school capitation over the past seven years.
Mbadi said he met with Education CS Julius Ogamba and Basic Education PS Julius Bitok to identify the funding gaps in capitation.
“We are not giving enough money for capitation; we have not been doing it for seven years, and I have no apologies to make. I have sat with the CS and PS for Education to look at that gap under the instruction of the president, and we have seen the gap,” Mbadi stated.
His announcement comes weeks after CS Ogamba dismissed claims that the government has slashed capitation funding for learners.
Speaking on July 28, CS Ogamba said that the Ministry of Education has neither proposed nor implemented a reduction in the capitation amount allocated to secondary school students.
“Nobody has ever said that we are reducing the money from KSh22,000 to KSh16,000. I don’t know where that came from,” Ogamba said. “Even my colleague never said anything close to that.”
CS Ogamba called on political leaders to support the education sector by offering practical solutions and exploring new funding mechanisms instead of fueling alarm.
“We are all in this together. What happens in budget-making is a matter of looking at available funds and allocating them across ministries. The education sector deserves and will continue to receive the support it requires,” he noted.
