Nairobi — 2027 Presidential hopeful David Maraga has launched a blistering attack on the state of Kenya's education system, blaming funding cuts, corruption and what he termed shambolic reforms for plunging learners and families into uncertainty.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, Maraga, the United Green Movement (UGM) party leader and a 2027 presidential aspirant, said transitions between education levels had become chaotic, while schools were grappling with a shortage of more than 100,000 teachers and persistent infrastructure gaps.
"Focus and quality have deteriorated, and infrastructure gaps persist across the country," Maraga said.
Capitation cuts and debt burden
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The former Chief Justice accused the government of deliberately underfunding education while prioritising debt repayment, saying secondary school capitation had been slashed by about 45 per cent from approximately Sh22,244 to about Sh12,870 per student.
"This comes at the same time the national government plans to spend over Sh1.9 trillion annually on debt servicing, more than 75 per cent of total revenues.This is not an unavoidable sacrifice. It is a choice," he said.
Maraga argued that Kenya had sufficient resources to fund education but that money was being lost through corruption and waste, citing reports of Sh1.1 billion lost to phantom learners .
The Auditor-General's 2023/2024 report has pointed to irregular spending, procurement scams and stalled projects in the education sector.
Maraga said teachers were overstretched, under-supported and excluded from the design of education reforms, warning that no education system could outperform the quality and morale of its teachers.
"Teachers must be paid well and paid on time. Respecting teachers is not optional; it is foundational," he said.
He painted a grim picture of learning conditions, claiming some classrooms in urban informal settlements such as Dandora had up to 160 pupils, while in some parts of the country children were still learning under trees.
"Poverty, geography, disability and gender still determine a child's chances," he said.
Grades versus learning
The UGM leader questioned the heavy focus on examination grades, saying the system was producing massive failure and only a small elite that survives,and alleging the existence of abnormal grading curves that yield disproportionately high numbers of low grades.
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"Education must not be measured by grades alone, but by learning outcomes," he said.
He further warned that access to education must go beyond enrollment to include retention, progression and completion with dignity, linking school-related stress and despair among families to broader social consequences.
CBC reset
Calling for what he termed an education reset, Maraga said reforms such as the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) had been rushed and imposed without adequate preparation or public confidence.
"We must end this shambolic CBC and rescue our children from reforms imposed on citizens whose leaders educate their own children in private schools," he said.
Maraga framed education as a constitutional right and a national duty, saying public funds under his administration would follow learners' needs, not the greed of officials, and that education financing would be transparent, predictable and accountable.
"A nation that neglects education mortgages its future.I want to urge Kenyans to demand leadership that places children and learning at the centre of national priorities." he said.
University funding model
He also criticised the new university funding model, describing it as a debt trap that shifts the burden of higher education from the state to parents, which he said violated the spirit of social and economic rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
"The problem is not scarcity but the siphoning of public funds,the government has prioritized political extravagance at the expense of investment in human capital," Maraga said.
