President William Ruto on Friday, February 20, pledged government intention to pay Sh2 billion as part of the more than Sh5 billion owed to the Kenya Methodist University (KeMU).
The President made the assurance when he hosted the leadership of the Methodist Church (which runs the university) at State House. The President spoke only a day after top officials from the Ministry of Education had presented their budgetary requirements to the Departmental Committee on Education of the National Assembly.
The debt owed to KeMU is part of the cumulative Sh60 billion owed to 32 private universities related to a programme that the government has since halted. Majority of the universities in the top ten list are faith-based and run by different churches.
The debt which is still expected to rise until all the students under it have graduated has historical perspectives. The programme was introduced to cure an immediate problem.
After the 2015 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, 5,101 candidates had their results cancelled after being implicated in various examination-related irregularities.
At the time, rampant cheating had become the norm across the country. The following year, the then Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i and chair of the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) chair Prof George Magoha cracked the whip and instituted stringent measures in the administration of the examination.
When the 2016 KCSE results were announced, the number of candidates who qualified for university admission dropped to 70,073 from 165,766 the previous year.
As was the norm before, the government would only sponsor a particular number of students to study in public universities and the remaining qualifiers would either join private universities of study in public universities under the self-sponsored programmes.
With only 70,073 students qualifying for university studies, the government was in a position to sponsor of all them in public universities.
However, it meant that private universities would be starved of students and possibly lead to their collapse. A decision was made to admit some of the students in private universities and the government commit to pay for their studies.
Mount Kenya University main campus. The institution is owed the highest amount at Sh11.6 billion.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
It is so that the government-sponsored students in private universities programme was born. The programme would run up to the 2022/2023 financial year when the government stopped admitting more students to private universities.
However, at the cessation of the programme, the government owed 32 private universities in excess of Sh45 billion, which has now risen to Sh60 billion.
“Sh45 billion was the figure when we stopped placing students in private universities. The latest figure after reconciliation is about Sh60 billion. The last cohort of the four-year programme will be completing this year but there are a few under degree programmes that take longer than four years,” the CEO of the Universities Fund Dr Edwin Wanyonyi told the Nation .
He added that the fund is computing the data and that the exact figure would be known in a week’s time. The matter is also being handled by the Pending Bills Committee, he said.
According to a document by the UF and seen by the Nation , Mt Kenya University is owed the highest amount at Sh11.6 billion, followed by KCA University at Sh6.6 billion, Kabarak University at Sh6.4 and Kenya Methodist University at Sh5 billion.
Other universities in the top ten list of those owed include: the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (Sh4.1 billion), University of East Africa, Baraton (Sh3.8 billion), Zetech University (Sh3.8 billion), St Paul’s University (Sh2.2 billion), Presbyterian University of East Africa (Sh2.1), Daystar University (Sh1.6 billion) and Africa Nazarene University (Sh1.5 billion).
“We’re still exiting the government-sponsored students. Many have graduated and we didn’t send them home even when the programme was halted,” Simon Gicharu, the chairman and founder of MKU said.
Education CS Julius Ogamba (left)and Principal Secretary State Department for Higher Education and Research Dr Beatrice Inyangala at Jogoo House, Nairobi, on July 1, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
The Principal Secretary for Higher Education Beatrice Inyangala told MPs on Thursday that the Association of Private Universities (KAPU) has issued a notice of intention to institute proceedings against the State Department on grounds that the Government has been placing students through the Kenya University and Colleges Placement Services (KUCCPS) in Private universities, but not funding the students optimally.
The Association also wrote to the Clerk of National Assembly on June 19 2025 asking for Parliament’s intervention to have the pending bill cleared.
“While the government placed students in private universities, the process of disbursement of funds to facilitate the teaching of students has not been smooth and efficient. This has forced most of the private universities to eat into their reserves to finance the education of government-placed students,” the letter reads.
