- The university funding model was unveiled on May 3, 2024.
- Kalonzo said the funding model aims to deny local Kenyans a chance at education.
Image: KALONZO MUSYOKA / X
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka has said the opposition will call for nationwide demonstrations over the new university funding model.
Kalonzo said they will lead protests if the government proceeds with the new funding model.
The university funding model was unveiled on May 3, 2024, with President William Ruto championing it as an equaliser in the education sector.
However, Kalonzo said the funding model aims to deny local Kenyans a chance at education.
"This administration has no idea on how to go about it, we will mobilise the country to say no if we are going to make university education only for the rich and not for the poor. The poor will rise and claim their position," the Wiper leader said.
At the same time, DAP-K party leader Eugen Wamalwa said they will seek justice for university students.
Parents and students have come out to decry the new university funding model saying it promotes inequality.
The President on Sunday defended the funding saying the banding in the new model existed before.
The President said that he has added one band to the four bands that existed before to make them five.
Under the new funding model, students have been put in five bands.
The funding framework replaces the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) previously used to finance universities.
Ruto said it also promotes the provision and access to quality higher education and ensures that all students are equitably and adequately supported based on their financial needs.
The President said that parents and students who have been put in a band that they do not belong to have a chance to appeal adding that those in the wrong band will be corrected.
Ruto said that at least 134,000 students applied for funding and 26,000 appealed because they had been placed in a band that they did not belong to.
The President added that those who appealed will get their feedback in two weeks.
"Every student or parent who appealed the banding in the new funding model will get their responses if they supplied the information and corrected the information in the portal," he said.
The President said that sometimes mistakes might have been made during the keying in of information in the cyber.