Sustaining free primary education and enrollment in Kenya

Today Kenya is among the poorest countries in the world. The political instability and economic stagnation of the 90s may have accelerated this by disrupting the operation of almost all the sectors in the country as argued by Abagi( 1997). For instance, Education sector was adversely affected, since in that period, costs were relatively higher than most parents would afford resulting in school dropouts, yet common investment lmowledge considers education, as a key component of human development hence needs more attention. The same period also shows that Kenya is among the few countries with considerable high education expenditure. (UNESCO, 1999); unfortunately no significa:nt increase in school attendance was observed until introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) in 2002. It is against this background that this paper has two main objectives; firstly to observe the enrollment trends before and after FPE. Secondly, to show the government's commitment and ability to sustain that enrollment yet they have limited financial resource. While doing so, the paper shows that allocation of other social services is at a decreasing rate and that the situation may result into poor performance by other sectors. It concludes that the government of Kenya is financial committed to FPE program given the percentages of education expenditure and that improvement in revenue collection will make this goal achievable.