HELB reverts to old funding model as cash crunch hits students
King'ori explained that HELB disbursed money was meant to avert a crisis even as the government awaits the outcome of an appeal it has lodged against a ruling that declared the new funding model unlawful.

First and Second-year University students will receive their funds from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) using the old model used for their counterparts in the third and fourth year.
This was announced yesterday by HELB as they await the appeal filed at the Court of Appeal after the High Court suspended the new model.
The announcement came following a storm at the HELB headquarters at the Anniversary Towers by students from Kenyatta University and the University of Nairobi demanding the release of their funds.
“We decided to pay the students under the old funding model. By the end of the day, they would have received their money. It is a stop-gap measure to ease the suffering of the students but the universities have not been paid,” HELB lending manager King’ori Ndegwa stated yesterday.
He explained that HELB disbursed money was meant to avert a crisis even as the government awaits the outcome of an appeal it has lodged against a ruling that declared the new funding model unlawful.
Details of the money sent to the students suggest that it is a balance of what HELB ought to have given them under the model quashed by the High Court raising queries on whether the government is defiant of the court ruling.
Yesterday, the protesting students stated that the delay in the disbursement has kept some of the first and second-year students out of campus as they are adversely affected.
However, King’ori said funds of Sh31 million have been released with only 180,000 students yet to receive their funds.
His remarks came after National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi assured students that his ministry had already released funds and any delays would be blamed on HELB and not them.
The reversal to the old model adds to the growing list of U-turn systems after new policies stall due to controversies.