THE "HILARIOUS" HELB

By Livingstone Otieno

Monopoly exists when a specific person or institution is the only supplier of a particular commodity whether it is a good or service. This means the supplier dictates terms and conditions of the operation creating the concept of coercion were you have to since no option is available.

One institution which has enjoyed monopolistic existence in the academic circles is the Higher Education Loans Board. As a monolith, it has ensured that dynamic and realistic students’ financial obligations do not evolve in relation to changing economic trends.


If there is an institution that needs digital prescription then HELB tops the list. Here, paper work still reigns like the ten virgins. Here, simple anomalies which require a click of a button to correct take a complete financial year.

At the HELB headquarters housed at the Anniversary towers, service delivery is confused with service delaying. Clients are treated like recipients of donations from God knows which philanthropic entities. Here, service offered to clients who happen to be students are privileges which can be withdrawn depending on the mood of the service giver.

This is the institution where one can spend the better part of the semester queuing just to correct a misspelling in their names.
The mistreatment one is subjected is yet to reach its crescendo when HELB gives a manual on how to spend the peanuts which to our MPs could be pocket change. The institution is in the process of introducing visa cards even before addressing the very mundane and simple challenges that taint its services.

What has never dawned on this institution is that the money they shylock to students is not a grant. It is neither a freebee nor a support fund like CDF. This is not a grant to begin laying procedure for its expenditure.

Loans remain loans whether clothed under higher loans scheme or given directly from banks. No bank – world over – sub-divides the loans it gives to its clients then goes ahead to direct them where, how and when to use it.

This is ridiculous, hilarious and akin to being authoritative and sectarian in nature. We have come a long way in achieving the freedom of choice and one querulous body whose mandate is solely to finance higher education should stick to that or seek more powers.

My mind tells me the higher hierarchy of HELB is colluding with some established retail chains to ensure that this loan ends up in these shops through strict usage of the proposed VISA CARD in particular outlets.

Somebody tell, HELB, an Honorable University Student (HUS) cannot pay school fees, accommodation and afford a decent meal with Kshs. 13,000 for a whole semester. That is to say, you cannot live with Khs.13,000 in form of a loan for four months and avoid engaging in pornographic acts like what happened in MOMBASA! This is even more complicated if you’re a LUO.