A day after Azimio leader Raila Odinga threatened to move to court over the capitation for schools, Treasury has announced the release of Sh31.34 billion.
With schools set to reopen next week, Raila had accused the government of subjecting children and teachers to undue suffering by withholding the funds.
Out of the funds, Sh4.74 billion will go towards Free Primary Education while Sh7.60 billion being capitation for junior secondary schools for term one.
Some Sh2.80 billion is meant for school examination and invigilation fees whereas Sh16.20 has been factored in for Free Day Secondary School.
The release of the funding is now set to significantly lessen the huge pending bills which has already been incurred by learning institutions.
“We have tasked our MPs to push, and we also plan to go to court to force the Ministry of Education to release full capitation to both primary and secondary schools so that schools can start the year smoothly,” Raila said in his New Year message.
Raila had argued that secondary schools have only received half of the funds they are supposed to be getting.
He said failure to release the funds had interfered with the feeding programme and payment of non-teaching staff and purchase of equipment.
“The whereabouts of the other half of the money is unknown,” the opposition leader said in his New Year message sent to newsrooms.
“We believe some of this money is going to fictitious schools that have been created for purposes of embezzlement,” he added.
Last month, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu announced the release of Sh3.9 billion as the first tranche of financing to cover scholarships for government-sponsored first-year students in public universities under the New Higher Education Funding Model.
The beneficiaries of the scholarships are those who successfully made their applications through the Higher Education Financing portal that was launched on August 31, 2023.
