National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has explained President William Ruto’s government’s move to scrap the national examination fees subsidy worth KSh 5 billion.
Mbadi said the 2025/26 budget has not fully covered the examination costs, as it has for the last 10 years.
However, the CS explained that they are introducing changes to the subsidy to cover only deserving students, those from low-income households.
Mbadi argued that it beats logic for the government to pay examination fees, which is about KSh 5000, for students from affluent backgrounds who are paying over KSh 1 million in school fees.
He said the government will establish a selection panel that will determine which learners qualify for financial assistance, in turn, reducing government expenses and directing the would be spend money to other important government projects.
"We have to review the costs in the sense that we must ask ourselves, why should we pay examination fees for all students? You see, in 2026, Kenya is projected to have approximately 3 million students sitting for their national examinations, around 1.2 million anticipated to sit for KIPSEA, and over 960,000 for KCSE.If your child is learning in a private school where you pay KSh 300,000, KSh 1 million in a year, honestly, can't you pay KSh 5,000 for the examination fee for that child? Why should you force, make Kenyans, taxpayers, some of whom can barely eke a living, to pay an examination fee for your child?" posed Mbadi.
