Helb protests are a cry for help from broke university students

Last week, hundreds of Moi University students took to the streets to protest delays in disbursement of their upkeep money from the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb).

Many poured their hearts out, revealing how they have been suffering in silence in hostels.

They listed many things, including sleeping hungry and lacking money to buy books, airtime, laptops, smartphones and photocopy their classwork.

Parents, lecturers and other education stakeholders were shocked by the revelations, but to us students, this is the typical life, one of hardship and poverty.

What is more disturbing is the fact that most of their pleas fall on deaf ears. Just like Helb, some parents and guardians choose to either ignore or postpone their children’s problems. This is one of the reasons some young men and women end up depressed and even commit suicide.

Life on campus is hard because you spend a lot of money without earning any.

Most students are neck-deep in mobile phone loans. Many others starve for days on end.

But there are several survival tactics that one can use to survive. One is to get a “side hustle”, a small business, to earn money.

You can buy and sell second-hand clothes, run a printing and photocopying service, operate M-Pesa shop and sell airtime.

But if you receive proper financial support from your family, just live within your means, avoid greed and peer pressure.

If you succumb to peer pressure, you are likely to engage in social ills such as getting a “sponsor”to bankroll your expensive lifestyle.

The “sponsor” affairs are very common on campus, especially in universities in Nairobi, and some of those unholy unions don’t end well. Some girls have ended up being murdered by their sponsors after their relationships hit the rocks.

Helb, parents and guardians, please help keep us safe in campus.

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