- CS Ogamba has intensified efforts to eliminate ghost schools and inflated learner records that have exposed public funds to misuse.
- A nationwide verification exercise has uncovered nearly 973,000 excess learners across primary and secondary schools, saving the government approximately Sh912 million.
- MoE has begun transitioning from NEMIS to KEMIS, introducing Unique Personal Identifiers to curb duplicate and fictitious learner records.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba has intensified efforts to clean up Kenya’s education sector by tackling ghost schools, fictitious learners and inflated enrolment records that have for years exposed the government to potential loss of public funds.
Since assuming office in August 2024, Ogamba has placed greater emphasis on strengthening the accuracy and integrity of education data, with the Ministry of Education undertaking measures to verify schools and learners captured in the government’s education management systems.
The challenge of ghost schools and inflated learner numbers is not new. Auditor-General reports had previously raised concerns over the allocation of capitation funds to non-existent institutions and the use of inflated enrolment figures, creating loopholes for the misuse of public resources.
Under Ogamba’s leadership, the Ministry launched a nationwide verification exercise in September 2025 to establish the actual number of schools and learners in the country. The exercise involved comparing records held in the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) with information collected at school level, including physical verification of institutions and their learner populations.
Findings released in February 2026 exposed significant discrepancies in the education database. The verification identified approximately 885,904 excess learners in primary schools and another 87,730 in secondary schools.
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The exercise also identified institutions that were either non-operational or had no learners despite appearing in official records. According to the Ministry, the Term Three 2025 verification exercise alone helped save the government about Sh912 million that could otherwise have been allocated on the basis of unverified learner records.
A key component of Ogamba’s reforms is the transition from NEMIS to the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS), which is intended to provide a more reliable and verifiable national education database. Schools are being required to re-register on KEMIS, providing an opportunity for the ministry to establish updated records on institutions, learners, staff and other critical information.
The new system is also expected to strengthen the identification of individual learners through Unique Personal Identifiers (UPIs), making it more difficult to create duplicate or fictitious learner records. By linking funding to verified institutional and learner information, the government seeks to ensure that capitation reaches schools with genuine learners.
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The reforms come at a time when the government is spending billions of shillings annually on basic and secondary education, making accurate enrolment data critical in determining how resources are distributed across schools. The war on ghost schools and inflated enrolment figures is therefore not merely an administrative exercise. It is part of a broader effort to safeguard taxpayers’ money, improve accountability and ensure that resources intended for learners reach the children and institutions that genuinely need them.
Ogamba’s approach has shifted the focus from merely identifying weaknesses in the education data system to implementing verification mechanisms designed to close loopholes and strengthen accountability.
By Kithinji Njeru
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