- Misplaced priorities have left Kenya’s education and healthcare sectors in crisis, from delayed capitation to a troubled health insurance transition.
- While housing and mega projects advance, corruption, ghost schools, and shrinking payslips deepen public frustration.
- Kenya must urgently restore accountability and refocus on education and healthcare as its true national foundation.
In every serious nation, education and healthcare are not side projects. They are the foundation upon which prosperity, stability, and dignity are built. Roads can wait. Housing projects can be phased. Grand infrastructure can be staggered. But the mind of a child cannot be paused. The health of a citizen cannot be postponed. Yet in Kenya today, it increasingly feels as though the sectors that shape human capital have been relegated to the margins of national urgency.
Under the leadership of President William Ruto, the government has championed ambitious programs in housing, infrastructure expansion, and revenue mobilization. To be fair, some of these initiatives are necessary. Affordable housing addresses urban congestion. Infrastructure improves connectivity. Digital reforms promise efficiency. However, the painful question confronting millions of Kenyans is whether these projects are being prioritized at the expense of education and healthcare, the very pillars that sustain long term national development.
This editorial seeks not to condemn for the sake of condemnation, but to hold a mirror to the state of our republic. It seeks to ask whether we are honest enough to admit that something is not working, and brave enough to fix it.
The Education Sector Under Strain
From basic education to tertiary institutions, the cracks are no longer subtle. They are visible, measurable, and deeply worrying.
Capitation Delays and Cuts in Basic Education
Public primary and secondary schools have repeatedly raised concerns about delayed or reduced capitation. Free primary and free day secondary education were once celebrated as transformative policies. Today, school heads are forced to juggle unpaid suppliers, overburdened parents, and demoralized teachers. Some institutions are quietly reintroducing informal levies because government disbursements are either late or insufficient.
The consequences are real. Feeding programs are disrupted. Learning materials are delayed. Infrastructure maintenance stalls. Schools in marginalized regions suffer most. When capitation fails, it is the poorest child who pays the highest price.
Even more alarming are revelations about ghost schools. Reports have indicated that hundreds of non existent institutions have received capitation funds running into billions of shillings. These are schools that exist on paper but not on the ground. Yet allocations from the Ministry of Education continue to flow. When public funds are siphoned through such schemes, it is not just corruption. It is theft from children.
If even a fraction of the money lost to ghost schools had been directed to real institutions struggling to buy textbooks and repair classrooms, the impact would be transformative.
University Funding Crisis and Band Placement Confusion
The introduction of the new university funding model, with its band categorization system, was presented as a fair and scientific way to allocate resources based on household income. In principle, targeting support to the most vulnerable is commendable. In practice, however, the rollout has been chaotic.
Students and parents have reported being placed in wrong funding bands, resulting in dramatically higher fees than anticipated. Appeals processes are slow. Communication gaps abound. Universities themselves are grappling with uncertainty in fee structures and delayed disbursements.
The administration has defended the model as sustainable and equitable. Yet on campuses across the country, anxiety reigns. Student leaders speak of financial exclusion. Families already squeezed by shrinking incomes are being asked to fill widening funding gaps.
Universities are not just struggling with student funding. They face mounting debts, delayed government remittances, and strained payrolls. Research budgets are shrinking. Infrastructure projects have stalled. Lecturers complain of delayed promotions and inadequate research support. The long term impact is a weakening of Kenya’s intellectual capital.
Technical Institutions in Financial Distress
Technical and vocational education was once hailed as the backbone of industrialization. The government has indeed invested in expanding access to technical training institutions. However, expansion without sustainable financing is a hollow victory.
Institutions such as Ollessos National Polytechnic have faced serious financial constraints. Reports of operational difficulties, delayed salaries, and supplier debts paint a worrying picture. When technical institutions struggle to pay electricity bills or procure training materials, the promise of a skilled workforce becomes a mirage.
It is contradictory to champion industrial growth while starving the very institutions meant to produce artisans, engineers, and technicians.
Corruption and the Auditor General’s Red Flags
No discussion of missed priorities can ignore corruption. Successive reports from the Office of the Auditor General have flagged irregular expenditures, unsupported payments, and questionable procurement practices across ministries and state agencies.
In the education sector, concerns have included mismanagement of funds, irregular tendering, and lack of accountability in capitation disbursements. Billions remain unaccounted for in various programs. Yet prosecutions are rare. Recoveries are minimal. Public outrage fades into resignation.
When corruption thrives, priorities become distorted. Funds meant for classrooms and hospitals end up financing lifestyles and political patronage networks. It is difficult to convince citizens to tighten their belts when headlines reveal fresh looting scandals.
Healthcare Transition Turbulence
The transition from the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to the Social Health Authority (SHA) has been framed as a bold reform to achieve universal health coverage. The policy vision is ambitious. In theory, it seeks to expand coverage and streamline funding.
However, the lived experience of many Kenyans tells a more complicated story. Following the shift from NHIF to SHA, complaints have surfaced about delays in approvals, confusion over benefits, and uncertainty in hospital reimbursements.
Healthcare providers have raised concerns about payment delays. Patients report being asked to pay out of pocket despite being registered. The government insists the new model is superior, including for university students. But daily testimonies from citizens suggest significant implementation gaps.
So who is telling the truth. Is it the government’s official narrative or the lived experiences of patients turned away from facilities. Perhaps both hold fragments of truth. Reform is complex. Transitions are messy. Yet acknowledging challenges is not weakness. It is responsible leadership.
The uncomfortable perception among citizens is that top leaders may not fully feel the system’s shortcomings. They have access to premium private insurance and high end facilities. They can afford top tier schools for their children. But the majority of Kenyans depend on public systems that are visibly strained.
Shrinking Payslips and a Struggling Economy
Beyond policy design lies the broader economic reality. Kenyan workers have seen their payslips shrink due to increased statutory deductions and new levies. Housing fund contributions, higher taxes, and other adjustments have reduced disposable income.
When disposable income falls, consumption declines. When consumption declines, businesses suffer. Small and medium enterprises report reduced sales. Suppliers struggle with delayed payments. Job creation slows.
Money circulation is the lifeblood of any economy. When households have limited spending power, markets stagnate. When markets stagnate, tax revenues paradoxically suffer. The strain is visible in rising loan defaults, mounting household debt, and a pervasive sense of economic anxiety.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that many Kenyans feel this is among the most financially difficult periods in recent memory. From food prices to school fees to medical bills, the cumulative burden is heavy.
A Question of Priorities
None of this is to suggest that housing or infrastructure projects are unimportant. They are vital for long term growth. But urgency matters. A classroom without books is urgent. A hospital without drugs is urgent. A student locked out of university due to misclassification is urgent.
A nation’s moral compass is revealed by what it chooses to protect first. If education and healthcare falter, every other development milestone becomes fragile.
Giving Credit Where It Is Due
To remain balanced, it must be acknowledged that the government has made efforts. The expansion of technical training institutions, digitalization of public services, and commitment to universal health coverage are not trivial undertakings. The attempt to reform university funding reflects a recognition that the old model was financially unsustainable.
However, good intentions do not excuse poor execution. Vision without effective implementation breeds frustration. Reform without transparency breeds suspicion.
A Call for Honesty and Action
Kenya does not suffer from a lack of ideas. It suffers from inconsistent prioritization and weak accountability. The first step forward is to admit that there is a problem. Denial deepens distrust. Acknowledgment builds credibility.
We must confront ghost schools decisively. We must ensure timely capitation. We must audit and correct university band placements swiftly. We must stabilize technical institutions. We must refine the health insurance transition in consultation with providers and citizens.
Above all, we must restore trust. That requires transparent communication, decisive action against corruption, and a reordering of priorities that places human development at the center.
Education and healthcare are not expenses to be managed grudgingly. They are investments that yield generational dividends. If we get them right, housing and infrastructure will find their place naturally within a thriving economy. If we get them wrong, no number of projects will compensate for a weakened citizenry.
This is not about politics. It is about posterity. Let us accept that there is a problem and fix it with courage, humility, and urgency. Only then can we honestly say that our national priorities reflect our national values.
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