Come For “Useless Certificates” Furious Kenyan Graduates Responds to HELB

On Wednesday, 20, 2019 the Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed made a statement that the government intends to use police to crackdown Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) loan defaulters.  

“We are also going to partner with our law enforcement agencies to track down those holding jobs and yet are reluctant to stand up to be counted as responsible and patriotic citizens who honor their debts,” said the soft spoken woman.

HELB chief executive Charles Ringera echoed to Amina’s words by stating that they are also seeking to partner with the Foreign Affairs ministry to track down defaulters in the diaspora.

These statements really upset the youth who graduated from universities and never secured jobs. In anger they went arms up and set social media on fire with millions of posts and comments.  Some claimed that they will sureender cerificates to HELB since they are not useful.

This is to officialy announce that i will surender my degree certificate from KU to #HELB offices on monday at 10pm, other willing defaulters can join me, #TurudisheDegreeTusifungwe

— Alex Chogo (@OtienoMfalme) February 21, 2019

While the youths are pleading with the government to take all the measures necessary to tackle employment among the youth in the country, HELB is ready looking for defaulters.

#HELB defaulters… Why are we been called defaulters when you are only supposed to pay the loan once you are employed….. Create employments for the youth first

— 🇰🇪 George Ke (@george86463397) February 21, 2019

Others said that prison would be a luxury for defaulters since they won’t have to worry about rent and food bills.

Prison is a luxury to #HELB defaulters.

— Wacera Kieha (@WaceraKieha) February 21, 2019

The Youth Congress is annoyed by Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed after her statement that the government intends to use police to crackdown Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) loan defaulters; they demanded that she must apologize to the youth.

“We demand that the Cabinet Secretary immediately withdraws the statement and tender an appropriate apology and clarification that this does not represent the position of the government,” Raphael Obonyo, co-founder of the Youth Congress said in a statement.

“Deploying police to arrest HELB defaulters is to ignore the real problem, which is unemployment.  Also, the unfortunate statement amounts to criminalization of poverty,” he added.

Over 50 per cent of graduates churned out of the universities in Kenya yearly do not get jobs, another significant number are underemployed or underpaid.

The constitution expressly provides for youth empowerment, article 55 obligates the government to take measures including affirmative action programmes to ensure youth employment and development.

The congress demand that the government take all the measures necessary to tackle employment among the youth in the country.