25 mar Kenyan students receive funding through the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) of about US$414 a year
The studies of thousands of students are expected to be terminated following a decision by the Kenyan government to stop funding students who did not finish their degrees in the minimum time.
For 27-year-old Owen Wandera, this is a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spilled over into 2021, with universities threatening to kick out students who had overstayed' their welcome.
Following a government announcement that it would no longer fund students who have not finished their degrees in the expected time, the University of Nairobi (UON) took the lead in the exercise that was expected to see 32,000 students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, eventually deregistered across all institutions.
In a memo dated 8 March, Julius Ogeng'o, the deputy vice-chancellor of academic affairs at UON, stated the and that the purge was scheduled to commence from late March.
The university senate, in a meeting held on , approved guidelines for student progression, which were to be implemented with effect from ... These guidelines provide for termination of students, progression and deregistration, according to the memo.
The government, in February, stopped the release of KSH5.5 billion (about US$51 million) that was meant to fund 32,000 students who, it claimed, had overstayed their welcome at public universities.
It is noted that some students had found a way to manoeuvre through the system and benefit from the funds despite their having exhausted their stay at the university.
Geoffrey Monari, the chief executive of the Universities Funding Board, which helps students on behalf of the Kenyan government, explained that universities had failed to provide accurate data concerning these students, and, therefore, there had been no choice but to stop their funding.