Most schools in Kenya are having cartels who fleece students by procuring items and selling to students at very high prices. Parents are calling upon Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha to intervene and crush cartels that are milking them. Most of them demand that some items must be purchased in school and notably is school uniforms at hiked prices. The items in most schools to be purchased are uniforms, bedsheets,bedcovers, shoes, socks, basins, sweaters, tracksuits, books, files, sets, class readers, mattresses, utensils, belts and many more.
Sector stakeholders have complained that the costs of various items are locking out thousands of students from education and turning into a real hurdle in the Education ministry’s push for 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school.
The cost of uniforms in day schools ranges from sh. 4000 to 10,000 while in boarding schools range from sh. 9,000 to 20,000. Therefore a parent is supposed to raise more than sh. 40,000 to admit a child in boarding school apart from fees.
In one of the schools, parents are required to buy three pairs of trousers at a total cost of Sh2,610, which means that one trouser goes for about Sh870.
Parents in the school who were interviewed said the same trouser would retail at Sh300 if bought from other sources in the open market.
In the same school, parents are required to buy three short-sleeved shirts at a cost of Sh530 each – similar shirts retail at Sh200 in the open market, parents said.
Other items listed include an executive blazer, physical education kits, and school T-shirts, all at Sh3,700.
In addition to these, parents are expected to buy a pullover with a logo, another sleeveless second pullover (called a windbreaker), two black neckties, and three pairs of socks.
“The above uniform should be bought in cash from the supplier(s) who will be selling them at the school during the admission period,” reads the admission letter.
Some schools also asked all the Form One students to buy swimming kits, a lab coat, fleece jacket, cotton pyjamas, gumboots, working gloves and a dressing gown, among other items.
A pantie costs sh. 1000 each.
A girls school in Nairobi, under optional items, parents have been asked to buy panties at Sh1,000 each, against a market rate of Sh100. Students were required to come with six panties from specific supplier. Only west pokot governor has come in public to demand the end of extortion of parents in schools during form admission. Most parents have complained but there’s no one interested to defend them against the fraudulent administrators.
