The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) shall not use the police to hunt down loan defaulters, but shall instead use its own officers.
Giving a clarification on the announcement that has not settled well with most graduates, Helb says that it will be particularly pursuing those who are employed.
“Law enforcement means use of people like us; section 15 of the Helb Act sub-section (2) gives the board the mandate to use its own inspectors to pursue those who have intentionally refused to pay back their loans, yet they have jobs,” said Helb CEO Charles Ringera.
According to Ringera, the media quoted Education CS Amina Mohammed out of context, by assuming that Helb would use he police force to hunt down defaulters.
Read:HELB Partners With Police to Hunt Down Loan Defaulters
The Ministry of Education on Wednesday announced that the board will be on a mission to recover Ksh7.2 billion owed by 74,000 defaulters.
Making the declaration,Ms Mohammed stated that the crackdown would begin any time from now, requesting employers to help them track down the individuals.
“We are also going to partner with our law enforcement agencies to track down those holding jobs and yet are reluctant to stand up to be counted as responsible and patriotic citizens who honour their debts,” she said.
Ringera noted that they are also seeking to partner with the Foreign Affairs ministry to track down defaulters in the diaspora.
“We are having a large number of graduates leaving the country to work abroad majority who have defaulted,” he exclaimed.
Ms Mohamed said the annual Helb student loan budget has grown from Ksh4.6 billion financing 109,189 students in 2012 to Ksh11.4 billion for 248,050 students in the 2017/18 financial year.
She further noted that 53 percent Helb budget is funded by the exchequer and 47 percent from loan recovery.
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