Former Interior Cabinet Secretary and Jubilee presidential hopeful Fred Matiang’i has called out President William Ruto over the failed strategy to implement the competency-based curriculum (CBC).

Matiangi has said that the major problem being experienced in the education system does not lie in the education model but in the failed implementation by the government.

Speaking at a local radio station on Monday, January 26, 2026, Matiang’i has faulted Ruto’s poor strategy in the implementation of the program, claiming that he failed to build on the foundation laid by the former administration, thereby leading to the challenges currently witnessed in the implementation of the curriculum-based education.

“The education system has no problem, but the problem lies in the implementation. When our brothers and sisters came into government, they brought confusion and are now blaming it on the failed model while they have failed in the implementation,” Matiang’i said.

Matiang’i has added that the decision to change Kenya’s education system was envisaged in Vision 2030, adding that the current government has failed to understand the competency-based curriculum, warning that politicizing the education system has caused its failure.

Matiang’i has also advocated for additional day schools in the country, where education will be cheap, and learners can be able to commute daily to and from school, while suggesting that a student should learn locally in secondary level and enroll in schools further from home in colleges and universities to allow integration.

The sentiments from Matiang’i who was once a cabinet secretary for education, come at a time when CBC has been seen crippling and with implementational challenges including the transition of learners from the junior secondary to senior secondary government being forced to extend the transition deadline due to low enrollemnt by learners in Grade 10, with a 15 percent transition gap from Grade 9 to Grade 10.

Current data shows that about 85 per cent of eligible learners have reported to senior secondary schools, leaving roughly 15 per cent yet to enrol. Earlier updates had placed the transition rate as low as 75 per cent, prompting the government to intensify mop-up efforts across the country to track and enrol the remaining learners.

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