Uproar as Education CS says police to arrest HELB defaulters

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed’s announcement that the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) will partner with police and other crime busters to hunt down over 74,000 loan defaulters; who are yet to repay Ksh 7.2 billion has sparked uproar on social media.

The CS said law enforcement agencies will track down defaulters through their work places but many say the move is impossible to implement given the high level of unemployment in the country.

“”The government has lost Ksh 7.2 billion through people defaulting payment on loans issued by HELB and we are now in the process of enhancing the HELB loan recovery process by working with law enforcement officers to make sure the defaulters who are employed payback the loans so others can benefit.We will partner with the agencies to trace the defaulters. We want them to become reliable and responsible citizens by repaying their debts,” Amina said during the launch of the distribution of competence based curriculum textbook for children with disabilities in Nairobi.

She added the government will also track their mobile money transactions.

Here are some of the reactions:

HELB should take us slowly. Don’t they read newspapers and watch TVs to see headlines like : educated and unemployed youth? Where are we to get the money to pay them back?

— L E G E N D (@steveshakur) February 20, 2019

CS Amina Mohamed says they’ll use police to track down 74,000 HELB defaulters to their work places.
Does she even know that of the 74,000 guys 73,841 are jobless?
But maybe they force the jobless ones to sell their kidneys to repay the loan. I don’t know.

— INCREDIBLY TERRIBLE (@allen_arnold) February 20, 2019

Hahaha. HELB to partner with the police to track down defaulters? This is the biggest joke I have heard this far. You want to hunt down unemployed youth to recover loan?
Who is the bright spark behind these ideas? Write off the loan. I mean billions more were lost to corruption!

— Ahmed Mohamed ((ASMALi)) (@Asmali77) February 20, 2019

HELB now wants to hunt down over 74k defaulters,definitely me included who are mostly Youths who are unemployed and can’t even afford money to feed themselves. Why can’t Amina ensure Graduates are given internships & employment after campus? All they are interested in is cash.?

— BRAVIN™ (@ItsBravin) February 20, 2019

You took a loan to fund your education expecting to get a job and pay back the money. You graduate, can’t find a job, you’re hungry, depressed,barely surviving & now
@AMB_A_Mohammed wants you jailed because you can’t find a job to enable you pay the loan. Criminalizing poverty. pic.twitter.com/zpSWIcq8kK

— Boniface Mwangi (@bonifacemwangi) February 20, 2019