When Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba gazetted the fees structure for public schools last week, he sought to give the official version of the amount of fees parents should pay.
It was not the first time the Ministry of Education had issued such a document regarding school fees. However, it is a badly kept secret that school principals have devised disingenuous ways of going round government directives and slapping parents with higher fees that affect how their children learn.
Investigations by the Nation , as well as parents who spoke to us, paint a picture of millions charged to parents, at times with the tacit knowledge of Ministry of Education officials.
The trend is reported mostly in national (renamed Cluster 1) and extra-county (Cluster 2) schools. County (Cluster 3) and sub-county (Cluster 4) schools are also affected but at a lower scale. The extra monies that parents are forced to pay are given various terms like ‘development partnership, remedial, motivation, coaching or appreciation’, among others.
“All these big schools charge extra fees. It’s not a secret. The official fees alone can’t run those schools,” a principal who sought anonymity said.
Apart from flouting the ministry’s guidelines, charging extra fees goes against the Basic Education Act. Section 29 (1) states that “No public school shall charge or cause any parent or guardian to pay tuition fees for or on behalf of any pupil in the school”. The assumption is that all tuition fees are covered by the Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE).
However, the statute allows schools to charge foreigners tuition fees as they are not covered by the FDSE. The law allows the Cabinet Secretary for Education to approve the imposition of “other charges” in a school, in consultation with the county education board, “provided that no child shall be refused attendance at school because of failure to pay such charges”. The Act also prohibits any person from collecting levies without issuing an official receipt.
A parent whose child is in Form Three at Maryhill Girls High School in Kiambu County recalls the process of raising fees began a few weeks after their daughter joined Form One two years ago. Just before the half-term break, the new parents were summoned for what was termed an “orientation” meeting. The parents sought anonymity to protect their children from victimisation.
“A member of the Board of Management (BoM) informed us that government capitation funding was insufficient and that the parents needed to ‘partner with the school to ensure quality education’,” the parent recalls.
A teacher collects newly arrived Grade 10 textbooks from the collection centre in Nakuru Day Senior School on February 3, 2025.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
During the same meeting, the new parents were asked to select representatives for each stream to represent them in the Parents’ Association (PA). According to our sources, parents would only later get to know that the class PA representatives work alongside the school administration to endorse decisions already made by the school management.
“Whether you attend the next meetings or not, you are told the payments were unanimously agreed upon,” the parent said, adding that silence was often interpreted as consent.
Soon after came announcements of a new dormitory project that attracted a development fee of Sh20,000 per learner, alongside a termly ‘teacher motivation fee’ of Sh3,000.
To be within the law that allows schools to charge fees with the approval of the Cabinet Secretary, schools convene choreographed meetings where select parent representatives, as well as other parents, propose fee increases that are quickly endorsed, minuted and presented to the County Education Board for approval.
“There is no chance for any dissenting voice. We were told that if we wanted our children to do well academically, we had to pay the cash,” another parent said.
At Buru Buru Girls Secondary School in Nairobi, parents describe a school environment where almost every academic activity attracts a separate charge. Holiday tuition (online), they say, is compulsory and costs Sh100 per lesson. With two lessons a day, parents part with Sh1,000 every week during the school breaks.
“What makes the situation even more coercive is that there are exams administered when school opens which are set from content taught during these holiday lessons. If your child misses the classes, they are already disadvantaged academically,” one parent explained.
Beyond the tuition fees, parents are required to pay a Sh5,000 motivation fee every term, and the money is deposited into a bank account bearing individual names rather than the official school account. A parent with a child at another Cluster 1 school explained how the process works.
“The PA class representatives are very instrumental in this. The bank account is in their names so the auditors can’t flag it. They mobilise other parents to pay the money but no receipts are issued. That way, no one can point a finger at the school administration and, of course, the auditors won’t flag it. The money is then withdrawn and given to the teachers for whatever purpose it’s needed,” the parent said, and showed a parents’ WhatsApp group with records of the payments.
Basic Education PS, Prof Julius Bitok.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Parents are also charged fees for learners to watch theatrical performances of Kiswahili and English set books, which are paid directly to teachers. There is no clear information on how the theatre groups are selected or how the pricing is decided, raising questions about accountability. In some instances, parents are charged fees to pay ‘motivational speakers’ who visit schools to talk to learners.
“All this while, activity fees are already included in official school fees, and it feels like double payment for the same services,” said the parent.
A parent from Embu County noted that school levies are pushed through meetings that are carefully stage-managed, where a parent allied to the school administration stands up and proposes a new fee. Another quickly seconds it, followed by a third. The others, intimidated and unprepared to challenge authority, remain silent as the proposal is passed by acclamation.
To avoid raising suspicion, the supportive parents are deliberately seated in strategic parts of the gathering.
“They tell us, ‘Do as the head teacher says. Don’t you want your children to pass exams?” the parent said, terming it “emotional blackmail that no parent can dare oppose openly, even if they are struggling financially”.
Some parents also claimed that schools take advantage of unrest incidents to charge large sums of money for the repair of properties destroyed.
A parent in Kajiado County notes that orientation meetings for new parents held before the half-term break are routinely used to introduce extra fees, presented as essential for good academic performance.
Some schools, however, have gone further, openly charging fees far beyond government limits. At Eastleigh High School, a public day school, parents report being charged around Sh40,000.
The chairperson of the National Parents Association (NPA), Silas Obuhatsa, said that the Teachers Service Commission should take administrative action against school principals who flout government directives on school fees, adding that parents can also report to the DCI.
