Karua promises free education beginning January next year

Martha Karua

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party presidential running mate Martha Karua.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential running mate Martha Karua has promised to make education free beginning next year if elected alongside Raila Odinga.

Speaking during a joint interview by central Kenya vernacular radio stations, Ms Karua said that the Azimio government intends to implement free education from primary schools to the university level.

Although the free education programme has been in effect since the Mwai Kibaki administration, parents have still been required to make payments to bridge the gap occasioned by a lack of funds.

Ms Karua blamed the lack of full implementation on corruption, pledging to weed out the vice.

Free education programme

“If we weed out corruption, we will need to inject very little money into the current provisions to make education absolutely free,” she said.

She said that the free education programme will be effected from January 2023.

“We will need the rest of this year to put things in order and from January 2023 we will streamline the education sector to make education free from primary school to university,” she said.

At the same time, she had delved into the controversy surrounding the preparedness of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) ahead of the polls in 10 days.

Ms Karua hit out at the commission for being disorderly calling on IEBC staff to exercise diligence in their respective mandates.

“IEBC has been conducting business in a very disorganized manner. Today they have invited us to explain some things and we expect satisfactory answers,” she said.