NAIROBI, Kenya, July 21 – President William Ruto has announced plans to introduce universal government funding for all students admitted to universities and colleges, regardless of their family’s financial background, in a major policy reversal that would scrap the controversial means-tested higher education funding model if approved by Parliament.Speaking at State House, Nairobi, during the launch of a report on Kenya’s long-term development vision beyond Vision 2030, Ruto said the government had submitted amendments to Parliament to anchor the new financing framework in law and urged lawmakers to fast-track the legislation before universities reopen in September.“Going forward, any university student, so long as they have passed their exams and have been placed in a college or a university, each one of them will get full funding for their higher education,” Ruto said.“It will be the choice of parents if they want to pay. But if parents don’t want to pay, we now have a model that will pay for every child.”https://t.co/RhBwJByBxQ— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) July 21, 2026If enacted, the reforms would mark a significant shift from the Kenya Kwanza administration’s means-tested funding model introduced in 2023, which placed students into financial bands to determine the level of government scholarships, loans and household contributions.The system has faced sustained criticism from students, universities and the courts over concerns about its implementation, fairness and sustainability.Acknowledging the shortcomings of previous reforms, Ruto admitted that the differentiated funding model had failed to deliver the intended outcomes.“We tried the differentiated model. It didn’t work because it made most of our universities almost close down. While we promised 80 per cent funding, we went down to 40 per cent and most universities suffered,” he said.He said the government later introduced a hybrid model combining scholarships, loans and parental contributions to promote equity, but conceded it still left many deserving students unable to pursue courses they had qualified for.“We have worked on what we thought was equity… but it’s not good enough. Now we are moving to universal under the amendments we have taken to Parliament.”According to the President, the proposed model is intended to ensure that access to higher education is determined by academic merit rather than household income.“It will not matter the background of any child in Kenya. It will matter how good they are only.”Ruto cited instances where students admitted to costly programmes such as medicine and engineering were forced to change courses because their families could not afford the required household contribution.“We have incidences where a child from an underprivileged family who qualifies to do medicine fails to do medicine because their parents cannot afford the household contribution. We want to stop that,” he said.“We want to make sure that if a child qualifies to do engineering or medicine, funding does not deter them from achieving their goal.”The President linked the proposed reforms to Kenya’s long-term economic ambitions, arguing that sustained investment in education is essential to building a globally competitive economy.He credited successive administrations with expanding access to education, citing the construction of schools under former President Daniel arap Moi, the introduction of free primary education under former President Mwai Kibaki and the rollout of 100 per cent transition to secondary school during former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration.Ruto said his government had built on those gains by constructing 23,000 classrooms and recruiting more than 100,000 teachers to ease staffing shortages.“We are doing it because we want to be deliberate. Countries that are ahead of us had high-quality education. Education was a central pillar,” he said.Beyond education, the President used the forum to outline plans for Kenya’s post-Vision 2030 development agenda, arguing that the country’s long-term economic strategy should be insulated from political transitions.He announced that both the National Infrastructure Fund and the Sovereign Wealth Fund had now been established in law and described them as critical institutions for financing Kenya’s future development.Ruto also proposed that the country’s next long-term development blueprint be anchored in legislation to minimise policy reversals following changes in government.“Development cannot be a project of one administration, nor should every election require us to abandon one national vision and begin another,” he said.He said the government would review recommendations contained in the newly launched report before embarking on nationwide consultations involving universities, counties, businesses, professional bodies, religious organisations and communities to formulate Kenya’s next development strategy after Vision 2030.