NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OWES KSH.447.3B

Public Universities are barely staying a float with a recent report from the controller of budget revealing a collective debt burden of 62.9 billion shillings as of December 2023, the National Government budget implementation review report for the first 6 months of the financial year 2023/24, showed some 42 Institutions of Higher Learning that have been battling under this growing debt that went up from 60 billion shillings last September.

A closer look at the numbers shows that Kenyatta University is the leading pack owing 11.7 billion Shillings in pending bills followed by Technical University of Kenya with 8.2 billion Shillings, Jomo Kenyatta University 8.1 billion shillings, Egerton University 7.8 billion shillings and Moi University with 7.5 billion shillings.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools, Public Universities haven’t been able to recover with many of the verge of collapse.

Last September, Ministry of Education engaged the treasury on ways to wave part of the debt public Universities owed the KRA, in that report by the controller of Budget were Ministries quoted with Roads and Transport owing 178 billion shillings, Energy and Petroleum 87 billion shillings followed by Education that in Campuses and Universities with with 62 billion shillings and Agriculture at 35 billion shillings.

The grant total of pending bills by semi -autonomous Government agencies stands at 447.3 billion shillings as at December 2023