He painted a grim picture of the Uhuru Kenyatta era, citing low capitation, teacher shortages and collapsing university programs as the wreckage his government is currently fixing.
However, the ink on that speech has not even dried before reality offers a stinging rebuttal across the schools.
While the President is busy lecturing officials from the former regime, reports have began filtering in regarding the current state of the Grade 10 transition and the picture isn't pretty.
Despite the government’s assurances of a seamless transition into Senior School, news from across the country suggests a system in gridlock.
In many regions, Grade 10 learners are sitting in classrooms without the basic tools of trade even textbooks.
Some school principals have raised the alarm, noting that they have received as few as four textbooks for an entire class.
This has let to stalled learning. Without these materials, actual teaching has ground to a halt in several institutions, leaving students in a state of academic limbo.
While the President blames the past for inadequate funding, the current delay appears to be a modern-day distribution failure.
The timing of these revelations is particularly awkward for the Executive. It’s a classic case of the blame game meeting the delivery gap.
While it may be true that the sector faced historical challenges, the current administration has now been at the helm long enough for the public to expect solutions rather than excuses.
Focusing on the failures of 2022 does little to help a Grade 10 student in 2026 who can’t start their syllabus because the books are stuck in a warehouse.
If the system is being fixed, the evidence needs to be on the desks of the students, not just in the rhetoric of a political rally.