The tussle between the members of the Trans Nzoia KESSHA and the Ministry of Education (MoE) seems to be escalating into a full-scale war following the latest row over the facilitation of training of principals and primary school headteachers last weekend.
KESSHA officials accuse MoE of allegedly colluding with the Trans Nzoia TSC Director Solomon Leseewe to install puppets in the organization’s county leadership during the 2025 AGM in Kisumu recently.
Also, KESSHA demanded clarity over the payment of Ksh100 per student as an activity fee, but the principals are up in arms over who between the school managements and the MoE should have covered the three-day joint training for secondary and primary school heads initiated by the Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI).
The Trans Nzoia Director of Education, Ms. Pamela Akello, in an invitation letter dated May 22, 2025, called on the principals, headmasters, and heads of institutions to form three clusters for the training at St. Monica’s Girls, Kitale School, and Chematich Secondary School. Each participant had to pay Ksh 7,500 from each institution.
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The workshop, which had expected to rise to 4,680,000 from 624 principals and headmasters throughout the county, registered low attendance.
Akello’s letter explained that the training was intended to impact the managers of the learning institutions with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively and efficiently run the school resources and adhere to the Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
“The training cost per person is Ksh 7,500 to be paid through the sub-county level of KEPSHA and KESSHA, the MoE” letter read in part without specifying if the institutions could bring bursars of schools.
Akello, however, said the expense of assembling the training facilities and materials would be met by the respective schools, but the principals opposed to the KEMI training fees of Ksh 7,500 for all participants added that they should have considered the finances of each institution and the expense of traveling, especially for the teachers from rural and hardship areas.
“We had also anticipated that we would get overtime allowances for going through the weekend with the seminar; instead, we are told to pay,” they said, adding that it was suspect the seminar was convened only a day after the MoE had released capitation fees to schools countrywide.
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They claimed the MoE had taken advantage of the weak leadership in KESSHA to direct the payments to be channeled through the body and proposed in the future the payments should be made directly to the KEMI accounts.
But the Trans Nzoia KUPPET officials defended the seminar, which they said had impacted positively on the prudent use of school funds. Eliud Wafula, KUPPET, described both KEPSHA and KESSHA as professional bodies that had the capacity to advise on financial management.
’This is not the first time KEMI has organized for the workshop; they have been carrying out the workshops from time to time to help our schools keep proper records of their finances,” Wafula said but asked about the capping of the participation fees from schools with low enrollment.
By Abisai Amugune
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