Babu Owino issues stern warning over delayed disbursement of HELB loan

Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has come out urging the National Treasury to move with speed to release the HELB loan to students. 

Owino said 327,000 varsity students are in need of money to support their education. 

"HELB must move with speed and send money to the 327,000 comrades. The purpose of Education is to replace an empty mind with an open one," Owino said. 

"We will soon stop SINGING and start SWINGING should they continue denying comrades this inherent right," Owino added. 

This comes after President William Ruto talked of plans to scrap the HELB loan and merge the three funding bodies in the higher education sector.

The MP had urged President Ruto to rethink his plan to scrap Helb.

Owino said university students depended on the funds to study, adding that they need the education to better their future.

"Ruto, Helb wachana nayo Kabisa. (Leave Helb alone). Comrades are poor and only education will save them from the york of poverty," he said.

"For we live in an hour of change and challenge, a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases the greater our ignorance unfolds," Owino said. 

Ruto said the government will establish the National Skill and Funding Council that amalgamates Helb, TVET, and University Funding Board. 

He added that the move will bridge the current higher education funding gap of up to 45 per cent.

Ruto said this plan will double the current HELB funding from Sh11 billion to Sh22 billion and even eliminate Helb loan interests.