The Universities Fund has issued a warning on Ksh 16 million funding gap for university scholarships in the 2026/2027 financial year with the increasing number of students in higher learning institutions.
The fund cited the estimation of the scholarship requirements for the current year to be KSH 47 billion against the allocated amount which is KSH 30.1 million.
The acting Chief Executive Officer Dr Edwin Wanyonyi maintained that scholarship and bursary providers should coordinate in order to ensure available resources reach more students who need financial assistance.
“Our biggest challenge isn’t mobilizing resources; it is creating impact with the resources we already have, there are students who are overfunded, and yet we have students who are underfunded and others not funded at all,” Wanyonyi observed.
In a meeting with scholarship and bursary providers in Nairobi on 28th October 2026, Wanyonyi advocated for cooperation between the government, corporate foundations, non-governmental organizations and private sponsors to improve and enhance access to university education.
He observed that some students are funded by multiple organizations while others lack funding. “Some of the students we are funding are also being funded by your organizations. How do we collaborate?” he asked.
Wanyonyi said that scholarship providers should work towards ensuring students who qualify access higher education.
“Every Kenyan student who qualifies for university deserves the opportunity to pursue higher education. By working together and improving coordination among scholarship providers, we can ensure that available resources reach more students and have a greater impact,” he maintained.
The stakeholders requested for a secure data system that will make it possible for providers to identify students receiving assistance and those with unmet financial needs in order for them to find ways to be of help.
The meeting included joint student sensitization initiatives, sharing of information, mobilization of resources and strategic partnerships to expand scholarship coverage.
APERIT FM, HII NI YETU
