It is a huge shock to many Kenyans who write academic papers
for students abroad after PayPal stopped processing their funds. This comes
after complaints from universities that essay writing companies offering
academic writing services were encouraging cheating among students.
Early this week, PayPal announced that it was working with
entities linked to essay writing services to ensure its payment platform is not
used to promote fraud in the education sector. PayPal letter released a notice
to the essay writing establishments telling them to take their business somewhere
else.
Britain raised concerns about academic writing firms in March
2019. This led to the British Education Secretary Damian Dinds asking PayPal to
stop processing money from such firms. Over 40 vice chancellors in 2018 wrote
to Hinds asking for the banning of writing websites.
One British newspaper in March published that Kenya was at
the core of the academic writing services. A huge amount of money is sent to Kenyan
writers who make a living writing papers for foreign students.