University of Nairobi Students Association Chief of Staff Michael Soi on Spice FM . [Screen Grab]
Kenyan students face renewed uncertainty over how they will finance their education as the government moves toward a new higher education funding system that could leave graduates with significantly larger debts.
Speaking during an interview on Spice FM, University of Nairobi Students Association Chief of Staff Michael Soi said the previous funding model failed to meet the actual cost of university life.
He explained that a student pursuing a five-year engineering course at the University of Nairobi received about Sh40,000 annually from the Higher Education Loans Board in 2017. After deductions, including a Sh500 annual ledger fee, the amount fell to roughly Sh38,000.
Of that sum, Sh6,000 went toward accommodation for the academic year, leaving about Sh32,000 to cover food, transport, printing, research and fieldwork. Tuition, meanwhile, stood at Sh28,500 a year, a cost the HELB allocation could not absorb.
"The student needs accommodation, he needs meals, he needs transport, he needs to move around, he needs to print papers, he needs to do research, to go for fieldwork," noted Soi.
He said the shortfall forced many students from low-income households to divert HELB money toward tuition, leaving them without enough for food or rent.