Kenyan Schools warned over uniforms cartel

The other day a student under my guardianship was chased from school due to unpaid school uniform fee. The boy, a form three student at Ol Kejuado Boys High School was supposed to pay around Ksh5400 for a new set of uniform.

Apparently in this school boys proceeding to form three must buy new uniform despite the state of their old uniform. Fine. That is not my concern. My inner eye was attracted by the fact that there was no option for the parents/guardians/students to buy the uniform from preferred suppliers. The rule is and has been: the school buys the uniform from own selected suppliers on the students’ behalf.

In my thinking, this policy is subject to abuse and most likely the school principals and administrators could be minting millions of shillings through kickbacks and commissions from suppliers.