Kenya: President William Samoei Ruto announced free university education for Kenyan students starting in September. He said that the government will fully fund university and college education for every student who qualifies for admission, saying no child should miss out on higher education because of their family’s financial situation.
On Tuesday, July 28, 2026 at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, President Ruto said that the government had completed work on a new higher education funding model and submitted the necessary amendments to Parliament to pave the way for universal funding beginning in September this year.
Therefore, the proposal marks a major policy shift after years of complaints from universities over inadequate government funding and concerns from students who struggled to raise tuition despite qualifying for admission. The reforms are intended to ensure that access to higher education is determined by academic merit rather than a family’s ability to pay.
President Ruto acknowledged that previous funding models had failed to achieve their objectives, by leaving universities under severe financial strain. He said that they tried the differentiated model. He expressed that the vice chancellors here know it didn’t work because it made most of the universities almost close. They also promised 80% funding, as they went down to 40%, and most universities suffered.
Ruto said that the government later introduced a funding structure combining parental contributions, student loans and scholarships in an effort to promote equity, but many deserving students still faced financial barriers.
Kenya’s President William Ruto announces free university education for Kenyan students starting in September. pic.twitter.com/bsg1PrR8k1
— Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) July 28, 2026
He added that now they are moving to universal under the amendments they have taken to Parliament. So going forward, any student, long as they have passed their exam and they have been placed in a college or a university, will get full funding for their higher education.
The President said that parents who wish to contribute towards their children’s education would remain free to do so, but financial hardship would no longer prevent students from accessing higher education. It will be the choice of parents if they want to pay. But if parents don’t want to pay, the government now have a model that will pay for every child.
Ruto urged Parliament to expedite consideration of the amendments to the Higher Education Loans Board framework and said that the reforms would enable students to pursue the courses they qualify for without being limited by cost. He added that they want to make sure that if a child qualifies to do engineering or medicine, funding does not deter them from achieving their goal, that the government of Kenya must be able to support every child.
If approved by Parliament, the reforms are expected to ease the financial burden on thousands of Kenyan families and significantly expand access to higher education ahead of the next academic intake. The announcement is also likely to resonate across East Africa, where many students who perform well in national examinations fail to enrol at universities because they cannot afford tuition and other related costs.
Kenya’s proposal is therefore expected to add momentum to regional discussions on expanding access to higher education and ensuring that financial constraints do not stand in the way of academic opportunity.