Basic Education Principal Secretary Prof Julius Bitok appears before the National Assembly Education Committee at Parliament Buildings on March 17.
Late afternoon on Tuesday, Prof Julius Bitok accompanied his boss, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Julius Ogamba, for a meeting with Deputy President Prof Kithure Kindiki at his Harambee House Annex office on Harambee Avenue.
He attended the meeting in his capacity as the Principal Secretary for Basic Education.
The meeting was intended to find solutions to the unrest that has swept across the country, affecting 204 schools, going by the official count. Prof Kindiki released a communication tasking the Ministry of Education with streamlining safety in schools and the enforcement of regulations to stem disruption of learning activities.
The ministry was also instructed to “develop a mechanism for stakeholder engagement, develop proposals for fine-tuning service delivery in schools and the safety of school communities”.
However, about one and a half hours after going back to Jogoo House, a communication from the Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, announced that President William Ruto had “reassigned” Prof Bitok to the State Department for Tourism.
He will swap places with John Lekakeny Ololtuaa, who will now take charge of the key State Department for Basic Education.
Did the President feel Prof Bitok would not be the suitable person to oversee the execution of the directives? This was the only change at that level, unlike common reshuffles, which affect many Cabinet Secretaries or Principal Secretaries.
Education PS Julius Bitok at Nakuru County Education stakeholders at Nakuru High School on May 5, 2026.
It is instructive that later that night, Mr Ogamba’s office issued a notification for a press conference at his office “to give a briefing on issues currently affecting the education sector”.
Sources at Jogoo House now indicate that there have been growing tensions between the Cabinet Secretary and PS Bitok, with concerns over the handling of emerging challenges in the sector. The PS has also been accused of concentrating more on popularising his candidature for the Uasin Gishu County Governor seat that he lost at the UDA primaries in 2022.
A particular incident cited is when Prof Bitok announced that the MoE had instructed school principals to negotiate with students if they did not want to sit examinations. His rival, Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii, was quick to mock his comments, terming them impractical.
It now emerges that the announcement caught the CS by surprise as there was no such agreement.
“The government communicates through circulars and official documents. Have you seen such a circular?” said a source.
The PS is accused of having taken with him some officials from the Immigration Department to the Basic Education Department, but who never gelled with those they found at Jogoo House.
As various stakeholders were scratching their heads for a lasting solution to school unrest, Prof Julius Bitok declared that no schools would be closed, terming the incidents of indiscipline witnessed as isolated.
Speaking over the weekend during a prize-giving ceremony at Kenya High School, Prof Bitok dismissed calls for schools to break early for the half-term break, saying a few isolated incidents could not be a justification for early closure.
“From our records, less than one per cent of schools have experienced unrest. The rest are continuing with learning normally, so there is no justification for closing schools early,” Prof Bitok said.
Principal Secretary for Basic Education Julius Bitok addresses journalists during the release of findings of schools’ data verification exercise on February 12, 2026 at Jogoo House in Nairobi.
The half-term break is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, June 24, and end on Sunday, June 28, 2026.
Prof Bitok has worked at the Basic Education Department for barely 15 months since he was moved from the equally powerful Immigration and Citizen Services Department in March 2025. His “reassignment” is to the less visible Tourism docket under the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife.
Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu wondered whether the changes are reflective of performance or ineffective leadership.
“At a time of rising unrest in schools and efforts to restore normalcy in education, Kenyans deserve transparency. Are these transfers based on performance and competence, or is ineffective leadership simply being moved from one ministry to another?” Dr Mulu said.
Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu.
Prof Bitok has had a rough ride with Members of Parliament during the short stint when he was the accounting officer at the Ministry of Education.
The latest scathing attack that MPs directed towards the PS came during a recent retreat of the lawmakers, where they accused him of being clueless and not in touch with realities in schools.
The lawmakers also complained about the PS skipping crucial meetings with them, a move that affects policy deliberations concerning the governance of education.
During the retreat in Naivasha, the Leader of Majority in the National Assembly, Kimani Ichung’wah, did not mince his words in expressing MPs’ disdain for Prof Bitok when he called him “a clueless PS”.
“I dare say that you [Mr Ogamba] have the most clueless PS in the Ministry of Education. He only sits in Nairobi and has no idea what is happening on the ground,” Mr Ichung’wah said.
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah.
In February this year, the PS was in the crosshairs of MPs again, this time after he failed to show up before the Committee on Education of the National Assembly to discuss the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) for the Basic Education Department.
The BPS deliberation is an important exercise where sectors analyse what the National Treasury proposes to allocate them for both recurrent and development expenditure in the following financial year.
“It is not the first time that he has failed to appear in this very important session. We are really saddened and our timelines are now over. We are supposed to present the Budget Policy Statement. We condemn the behaviour of the PS and, more importantly, the casual manner in which he is carrying out his work as a PS,” the committee chairperson, Julius Melly, said.
“I think we need to go back to the Standing Orders and find out the harshest punitive action that we can take against the PS so that he can be an example to others,” added Mandera South MP Abdul Haro.
Luanda MP Dick Maungu pointed out that since the PS was moved from Immigration to Jogoo House, he had never shown any respect for the Education Committee.
“We note with concern that since he came to this department, he has consistently failed to attend meetings for communication and consultation. This is not the first time; even last year, this committee summoned him regarding similar matters and he failed to appear,” Mr Maungu said.
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