wordpress wp_query using ‘s’ => ‘value’

I have the following wp query:

$keyword = $_GET['se'];
$args = array(  
             's' => $keyword,  
             'post_type' => 'page',  
             'posts_per_page' => '10',  
             'meta_query' => array(array('key' => 'Active','value' => 'yes'  ),  
                          array('key' => '_wp_page_template','value' => 'default'  )  
                               ),  
             'orderby' => 'post_date',  
             'order' => 'DESC',  
             'showposts' => -1,  
             'paged' => $paged  
            );
   $qu = new WP_Query($args);  
while ( $qu->have_posts() ) :  
   $qu->the_post();  

       the_title();   
       the_excerpt();  

endwhile;  

wp_reset_postdata();
?> 

If I don’t include ‘s’ => $keyword, it returns what you would expect but as soon as I include said keyword it returns nothing. The keyword does have matches in the DB.
Anyone know why? And where am I going wrong here?

Thanks