STUDENTS' LOAN:

UNREST AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OVER HELB LOAN

By Maritim Kipngetich

The escalation of students’ unrest over Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) loan over the past few months, has rekindled a heated debate among the students across various universities with each student having a different view of the matter.
Following the recent closure of Kimathi University where students took to streets and destroy properties claiming that they had not been given the funds by the board, the issue has generated different reactions among students with some questioning the board; is Helb loan given first to students from some universities and others from other universities wait for some time before they are given?
The students from Kimathi University were complaining that they had not been given the funds and yet students from other universities had got the money.
Gorge Mureithi is a fourth year engineering student at the University of Nairobi (UoN) and he says disbursement of funds by the board is mainly based on the universities.
“It is clear that when the board is giving out funds it must base on the universities. For example, the Helb headquarter, Anniversary Towers, is just opposite UoN main campus. If the board delays to give UoN students funds, then the students can go there and claim the money because they can easily access the building unlike other universities at the countryside,” Mureithi says.
In September this year, UoN students stormed Helb headquarters demanding the funds. They were arguing that the board had delayed the money. They were expecting their subsequent loan in June, but the board delayed the disbursement by three months and the students had to compel it to give out the money.
However, the board, as it announced in June, had a genuine reason to delay disbursement. It said that defaulters had not reimburse their outstanding loan balance and the board found it elusive to give out billions of shillings students had applied in June. Prior to annual budget reading, the board had announced that the loan disbursement might be delayed;  board singled out first years who were to join various universities across the country in September, as the main students who would not benefit from the funds until November this year.
“Year of study matters a lot. You cannot expect a fourth year to ask money from his or her parents. The board prefers to give loan to continuing students to freshmen,” Mureithi said.
The process of getting loan has been a headache to some students. Several tedious processes have denied students to apply loan. Some students complain that getting lawyers to stamp the application form in some regions of the country is not an easy thing. They have had to toil and moil with some, who have got a chance to travel to the Helb headquarters, have to use a thousand shillings for one stamp.
“My home is Wajir. To get a lawyer is very difficult unless one travels all the way to Garissa High Court. For my case I had an advantage because I was admitted to this university (UoN)...I had my application form stamped by a lawyer on third floor at Anniversary Towers,” Hussein Abduraman, a second year economic student at UoN, said.
Asked if people from poor counties should be given more loans, Abduraman admitted that the loan should not be given equally. He said people like him, who emanate from marginalized areas, should be given more funds.
“We are in a desert region characterized by poor rainfall. We cannot plant anything. We only depend on livestock unlike counties like Kiambu where people do businesses, plant tea and coffee,” he says.
Religion, according to Abduraman, is never a factor to be considered when disbursing loan to students by the board. He said the money he gets as loan from the board is just the same as what his friends from other religion get.
Abduraman’s sentiments are echoed positively by Damaris Muli, a second year education student at Kenyatta University. She said no one can be discriminated because of one’s religion. She said that all faiths, whether Muslim, Hindu or Christian should not deter one from getting the funds from the board.
“I think even the board management has never thought of giving out the funds basing on one’s religion. Constitution is clear on the issue of religion,” she says.
However, Muli said that money should be given equally to all students unless in special circumstances.
“If a student is an orphan and needy then such student should benefit more from the funds. It should not be based on the regions. One might say people from certain county are wealth, but there are some who are languishing in poverty and they live within that county,” she says.
Legal measures according to Muli are necessary since the money in question is given as loan. She said that will enable the loanee to refund the fund in future otherwise if legal procedures are not followed then loanees may not pay back the money.
Kevin Onyango, a third year second semester pharmacy student at Technical University of Kenya, has never applied the Helb loan saying that he does not want the money because he will be expected to pay in future.
“Loan is meant for students who emanate from less-endowed families. If one’s parents are able to pay fees and money for one’s sustenance, then no need of one applying for loan. Helb loan is not for free. One is expected to pay back,” he says.
The Helb loan has been a question odf discussion among students of late. Although the board is justifying the reason why they delay the funds, they should look for other ways of getting the money rather than wait for defaulters to pay back. Many of the past loan beneficiaries have no jobs, so no way they can pay the money. The board can request more funds from the government.