Nyabola v Attorney General & another; Kenya Private School Association Nakuru Branch (Interested Party) (Petition 72 of 2012) [2014] KEHC 2599 (KLR) (Constitutional and Human Rights) (10 October 2014) (Judgment)

Facts

The petitioner Gabriel Nyabola sought a declaration that the respondents' policy to provide free secondary education from January, 2008 and subsequent years to students attending Government and local authorities' schools exclusive the students attending private secondary schools was discriminatory.

Issues

1. Whether every person under the age of 18 years was entitled to primary and secondary education in Kenya that was free and compulsory.
2. What did the progressive realisation of the right to education entail?
3. Whether the failure by the State to provide financial and in-kind assistance to private schools was discriminatory.

Reasoning

The court held that every person under the age of 18 years was entitled to primary and secondary education in Kenya that was free and compulsory. The court further held that progressive realisation of the right to education did not mean mere paper policies but deliberate and concrete steps taken to achieve free basic education for all on a non-discriminative basis.

Outcome

The court held that the failure by the State to provide financial and in-kind assistance to private schools was not discriminatory.

Authorities cited