The Politics of Student Debt and Why it Must be Abolished

Earlier this week, the High Court of Kenya issued a judgement stopping the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) from imposing interest rates and penalties that are double the principal loan to beneficiaries. This judgement found that HELB was acting in contravention of Article 27 and sections of Article 43 of the constitution and extended the in duplum rule enshrined in Section 44A of the Banking Act to all institutional lenders and not just those borrowing from financial institutions regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya. 

Article 27 of the constitution guarantees that every person is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law and that the state shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against any person on any ground while Article 43 guarantees a right to the highest attainable standard of education, food, healthcare, water, housing and social security.