Government and Policy

Schools To Start Getting Capitation This Week – CS Ezekiel Machogu

BY Getrude Mathayo · June 8, 2023 03:06 pm

Education Cabinet Secretary, CS, Ezekiel Machogu has announced that schools will receive capitation funds by Friday, June 9, 2023. According to Machogu, who was answering questions from MPs on Wednesday, the money distribution was delayed.

“I would like to inform all the MPs here that capitation funds which are the tune of Sh28 billion, the treasury was supposed to have given the funds before Friday last week but there was a delay,” Machogu said.

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Machogu said he has liaised with the Treasury to release the funds since the issue is not only concerning him but the entire country.

“And I wish to report to the honorable members and the country as a whole that indeed he has confirmed that by tomorrow, the funds will be in the ministry and then thereafter, we will be able to disburse the same to all the schools countrywide,” Machogu said.

Machogu asserted that he had engaged with the Treasury to release the funds because the issue impacts not just him but the entire country.

This comes after school heads came out to complain that they are struggling to keep learners in school due to the high prices of commodities and delays in the release of capitation funds.

Headteachers and principals called on the government to disburse school capitation funds or else the institutions will be forced to close down.

They said the government urgently needs to intervene in the ongoing situation as they are now forced to buy supplies on credit due to a shortage of cash.

Prices of basic commodities such as rice, sugar, cabbages, and beef which are heavily used by schools have increased in the recent past, further pilling pressure on the schools that have been running on empty. Education CS advised schools to compare prices in the market with those at the Kenya National Trading Corporation, KNTC.