Moi University administration block. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- The universities are struggling to honour obligations such as payroll taxes, retirement benefits and insurance premiums for employees, according to a report submitted to lawmakers on Tuesday by the Ministry of Education.
- Funding for universities has been hardest hit by a sharp fall in the number self-sponsored students in recent years due to a drop in number of students scoring the mandatory C+ grade in KCSE.
Public universities have failed to remit employee dues amounting to Sh34 billion, underlining the deepening cash flow crisis in Kenya’s institutions of higher learning.
The universities are struggling to honour obligations such as payroll taxes, retirement benefits and insurance premiums for employees, according to a report submitted to lawmakers on Tuesday by the Ministry of Education.
Funding for universities has been hardest hit by a sharp fall in the number self-sponsored students in recent years due to a drop in number of students scoring the mandatory C+ grade in KCSE.
“The unremitted statutory deductions is Sh34 billion… and we are not sure how we are going to handle the situation when universities resume,” Higher Education Principal Secretary Simon Nabukwesi told the National Assembly Committee on Education.
He said Moi University, the University of Nairobi (UoN), Egerton University and the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) carry the biggest bill.
Mr Nabukwesi added that two universities are “in very critical situation where at one point the VCs were arrested and compelled to pay the money they didn’t have”.
The public universities have outstanding remittances to the Kenya Revenue Authority, National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), National Social Securities Fund (NSSF), pension scheme dues, insurance premiums and sacco contributions.
Remittance of statutory, loan and members' deductions to saccos and banks are mandatory employer obligations.
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