Kenya: Parents still pay for free primary education

Parents with children in public primary schools had paid Sh2.64 million in "school fees" by early last year, despite a Government directive that made primary education free and compulsory. The directive was effected early last year but some schools continued to charge fees. The questionable payments were detected by an audit firm commissioned by the Government to establish the impact of a donor funded book project. Carried out in 25 districts countrywide to establish how the project was working, it discovered that nearly a quarter of the country's 18,000 schools had been charging fees. Parents were being forced to pay the money to the district education boards to finance "mysterious" projects.