Ruto defends govt interventions on education amid school capitation row
By Luke Oluoch, January 8, 2026President William Ruto has broken his silence on the state of education in Kenya and capitation to schools, defending his administration’s intervention measures to remedy the sector.
Speaking in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, on Thursday, January 8, 2026, during the Nyota startup capital disbursement, the head of state confirmed that the government had disbursed a total of KSh44 billion to schools before the school reopening date of Monday, January 5, 2026.
The disbursement to primary, junior, and senior schools represents 50 per cent of this year’s total funding.
Disbursement to schools
He added that the government had improved the educational infrastructure as part of a wider plan to enhance the sector, which has suffered from funding shortfalls.
“I am happy we are having this conversation about the state of education in Kenya. We have demonstrated our track record in matters of education,” he stated.
“We have streamlined the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) that was troubling parents and children, and it is now clear where it is going. We also have employed teachers and placed capitation money in schools for the first time before the children set foot in school. We sent Ksh44 billion to our schools last week before the opening of schools,” he said.
Ruto explained that the government had committed to ensuring the full amount of the standard capitation rate of Ksh22,244 per learner per year for senior schools also reaches the learning centres in time for the next two terms.
“We have committed to making sure that the full capitation funds of Ksh 22,000 for each and every child are available in the next two terms so that our children can study uninterrupted,” he stated.
Human resources
He described the interventions as part of the government’s plans to fund basic education as a priority for national development and the backbone of Kenya’s most potent and richest resource: human capital.
“The biggest resource we have in Kenya is our human capital. Our young people of the republic are the most productive part of it. That is why we are investing more money in this regard—in the education sector, the construction of laboratories, and other projects—because education is the only way to sharpen that human capital,” he added.
The president’s declaration comes a day after he received a briefing on the reforms from Education Cabinet Secretary Migosi Ogamba at State House, Nairobi.
Ogamba was accompanied by Principal Secretaries Julius Bitok, responsible for Basic Education, and Esther Muoria, in charge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training.