Jane Moraa sits quietly under a tent outside Menyenya Mixed Secondary School in Nyamira County, her daughter standing close by.
In her hands is an admission letter that is creased, unstamped, and heavy with uncertainty.
“I have the letter, I have the child, but I don’t have the money,” she says, her voice low.
As Grade 10 admissions entered their third day this week, scenes like these are playing out across many secondary schools in the Gusii region.
Empty desks and half-filled classrooms reveal the growing cost of Kenya’s harsh economic climate.
For many parents, the transition to senior school under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) appear to have collided with shrinking incomes, rising food prices, and mounting household bills.
By Wednesday, a spot check found most schools receiving students in small numbers.
In some school, anxious administrators were fielding calls from parents who were asking for more time.
At Amasege SDA Mixed Boarding, Amabuko and Hema Mixed Secondary Schools, parents clustered outside the gates, clutching admission letters , others wanted to strike concessions on how to pay the remaining fees
Outside Amabuko, Grace Kwamboka said her son had passed her Grade Nine and secured admission to Riokindo Boys but the cost of fees held her back.
She arrived with only Sh5,000, hoping it would be enough to secure her son a place.
“That was all I had,” she said.
“I was told to add more, but I don’t have it. I don’t know what to do next,” she said as she walked out wiping a tear m
Most school heads said the slow reporting may be due to financial desperation.
“Parents want to bring their children, but they are overwhelmed,”Amasege Mixed Secondary School principal Robinson Matara, also Vice Chair Kisii Secondary Schools Principals Associate told Kahawatungu.
At Menyenya, principal Samuel Abuga said only 200 students had reported by late Wednesday .
They are looking forward to receive 600 who the systems placed at the school.
“Many parents are still promising to bring them once they raise some money,” he said.
A senior female principal who declined to be named said she suspects most parents were still scouting for relatively affordable schools for their children.
“Yes, the enrollment is low but the factor of finances dictates most parents to where they will place their children,” she said.
Obed Bosire, a parent, said he could not afford fees at Kereri for his daughter and thus took her to the nearby Suguta Mixed Secondary.
For other parents like Thomas Kerongo, the waiting is the hardest part.
His daughter keeps pestering him where she would report to school.
“I tell her ‘soon’, but I don’t know how soon. This economy has defeated us,” he said.
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