NAIROBI, Kenya — A damning new report released by the Elimu Bora Working Group has exposed a widespread crisis of unauthorized fee collections across Kenyan public schools, naming elite national and regional institutions like Thika High School, Maseno School, and The Kenya High School as primary culprits.
According to the comprehensive survey, Thika High School recorded the highest number of illegal fee cases in Central Kenya. Maseno School emerged as the leading violator in the Nyanza region, while The Kenya High School topped the list for unapproved extra charges within Nairobi County.
Hidden Fee Demands and Extortion Tactics Exposed
The Elimu Bora report reveals that school heads are deploying sophisticated and subtle tactics to stay below the Ministry of Education’s radar. The vast majority of these illegal fee demands are communicated verbally to parents to avoid creating any paper trails or issuing official receipts. However, defiance remains high, with 51 percent of the surveyed schools still bold enough to issue official written requests demanding the extra money.
Worse still, the survey flagged severe intimidation tactics, noting that several institutions have resorted to threatening parents or unlawfully barring learners from classes if they fail to meet the additional cash demands.
Massive Financial Strain on Kenyan Families
The common unapproved charges targeted in the lobby group’s report include compulsory remedial tuition, motivation fees, unapproved development projects, and mandatory payments for basic stationery like printing paper.
These extra costs have created an unsustainable burden on households, forcing nearly 37 percent of parents to regularly borrow money or sell off family assets just to keep their children in school. Over 61 percent of households interviewed across 11 counties stated that the unapproved levies are completely difficult or impossible to afford.
The findings have raised sharp regional concerns regarding blatant non-compliance with the government’s officially gazetted school fee structures. Education stakeholders are now calling on the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to audit public secondary school accounts and take immediate disciplinary action against defiant boards and school principals.
