John S. Khabamba

 As the Grade 10 transition to senior schools nears completion, it has become evident that no fully boarding senior school has admitted day scholars. This is contrary to expectations arising from the government’s much-touted policy shift in grade 10 transition under the Competency-Based Education.  In a bid to enhance accessibility to quality education, the Ministry of Education had indicated that purely boarding senior schools would be abolished. All senior schools, regardless of their clustering, were expected to allocate at least 10 per cent of their admissions to day scholars through the establishment of day wings. However, the policy appears to have remained more theoretical than practical. To date, the government has not released any data showing boarding senior schools that have implemented day wings or admitted day scholars. A quick spot check further reveals that the placement process did not accommodate day scholars at all. Official admission letters from major senio...

The Ministry of Education has moved to avert the Grade 10 placement crisis. In its latest press release, the Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, announced that parents will be able to seek transfers to new senior schools of their choice once the second revision window opens from 6th to 9th January. Ministry of Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba during the release of KJSEA Results on 11th December, 2025 Credit: Courtesy  " The revision will provide parents, guardians and learners an opportunity to provide legitimate and verifiable grounds of reconsideration of the initial or revised placement... " stated the press statement in part.  This move is intended to resolve the many rejected and pending requests that parents submitted after the release of placement results. Parents will be allowed to revise placements by seeking assistance from the target senior schools, a move aimed at easing pressure after widespread complaints about the rigidity of the automated system, which ...

Thousands of Grade 10 transfer requests were rejected even before the transfer window was closed, much to the disappointment – and in some cases anger – of parents and learners. While the government maintains that there was never a guarantee that transfers would be approved, the scale of the rejections raises serious questions about how realistic the original placements were. PS Julius Bittok (on the left) consulting Education Secretary Julius Ogamba during the release of KJSEA Results on 11th December.   Photo:Courtesy The official position is that placements were done strictly based on learners’ choices. We have even been told that a learner being placed in a day school more than 100 kilometres away from home was still the learner’s own choice.  But if this is true, one question remains unanswered: Why would learners deliberately choose day schools located hundreds of kilometres from their homes, fully aware that placement in those schools was a real possibility? The answer ...

 Babu Owino cannot simply inherit ODM and automatically become the Luo kingpin the way someone inherits property  or worse, a wife. Leadership in Luo politics has never worked that way. Photo: Embakasi East MP, Babu Owino consulting the late Raila Odinga In an event   Raila Odinga did not inherit ODM. He fought for it. He endured detention, exile, betrayal and near-political death. His struggle resonated with the frustrations of the Luo community and with millions across the Republic. Over time, he became more than a politician — almost a cult-like figure whose authority flowed from sacrifice, not succession. It is therefore misleading for polls such as the recent Infotrack survey to casually position Babu Owino as the “next in line” to the ODM throne. ODM is not a monarchy. It is a movement built on struggle, not inheritance. The bigger danger is what such narratives do to the fragile post-Baba unity within the party. ODM is still in mourning politically. Its base is sti...

 Despite the Ministry of Education’s insistence that KJSEA does not rank learners and that placement under CBE is non-discriminatory, the release of recent Grade 10 placements has sparked debates over whether academic ranking persists under a new label.  Following public outcry, the Ministry allowed requests for school transfers, but the review process largely reinforced merit-based placement patterns. Of 117,000 transfer requests received in the opening two days, only about 20,000 have been processed so far.Most approved transfers are within the same cluster or to lower clusters (e.g., C2 to C2).Learners placed in C4 seeking transfer to C3, C2, or C1 are largely being rejected, exposing hidden stratification.The outcome raises questions about whether CBE has removed ranking in practice or merely rebranded it. The Ministry of Education has repeatedly assured parents and the public that the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) does not rank learners and therefore...

The failure of the Education Ministry to release Grade 10 placement results has escalated anxiety among KJSEA candidates. Over a week after the release of the KJSEA results, the Ministry had indicated that placements would follow almost immediately. Speaking during the inaugural release of KJSEA  last Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba assured the public that over one million students would know their respective senior schools before Christmas. “Placement of candidates who sat for this year’s Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) is set to begin next week,” he announced while taking questions from the press. This was intended to ensure adequate planning ahead of the first-ever senior school transition. “All candidates will know the senior schools they have been placed in by December 20,” he added, noting that over 60% of learners qualify to take the STEM pathway, as envisaged by the framers of the CBC. While addressing delegates at the Kenya Union of Tea...