- The High Court has summoned KNEC CEO David Njengere and former Gatoto headteacher Margaret Kimani over an examination registration crisis affecting about 300 learners.
- The court has prioritised resolving how affected Grade 6 and Grade 9 learners will sit their national assessments.
- Proposals include having learners sit exams at a neighbouring school or through a KNEC-facilitated arrangement, with further clarity expected on September 29.
A dispute over the legal status and administration of Gatoto Primary School has moved into a more urgent phase, with the High Court demanding a practical solution for about 300 learners facing difficulties registering for their national assessments.
Justice Gregory Mutai has summoned Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) Chief Executive Officer Dr David Njengere and former Gatoto headteacher Margaret Kimani to appear in court on September 29, 2026, as the court seeks to establish how the affected learners will be registered and allowed to sit their examinations.
The immediate crisis is not the determination of who ultimately controls Gatoto; it is whether children caught in that dispute will be able to sit examinations for reasons largely outside their control.
The matter came before Justice Mutai on September 23 amid concerns that some of the learners had been unable to complete examination registration because they lacked the required National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) details. Regional Director of Education Reuben Kipturgo told the court that NEMIS numbers are attached to individual learners and cannot simply be transferred between institutions.
Lawyer Danstan Omari told the court that about 300 children were affected, with roughly half having registered and selected their subjects while the remainder had not completed the process. The situation has become particularly urgent because the subject-selection window has already closed.
Justice Mutai made clear that the immediate question before the court was how the affected Grade 6 and Grade 9 learners would sit their national assessments, rather than resolving every historical disagreement surrounding the school. That approach effectively places the learners’ right to continue with their education at the centre of the proceedings.
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A School Dispute That Has Become an Examination Crisis
Gatoto has been at the centre of a prolonged dispute over its legal status and management. The school was established as a community facility in 1984. Community representatives have maintained that it is a government-funded public school, while court proceedings have also dealt with its classification as a private, non-profit institution operating under the Alternative Provision of Basic Education and Training (APBET) framework.
A 2025 High Court judgment records a dispute over an attempt to re-register Gatoto as a public institution, including the issuance of a new certificate of registration dated October 15, 2024. The institutional dispute has now acquired a direct consequence for learners: examination registration.
At the centre of the immediate impasse are records and examination-registration credentials previously held by the former school administration. The court heard competing arguments over the status of the records and whether they could be surrendered or transferred following changes in the school’s administration. The Education Ministry’s position presented in court was that NEMIS details belong to individual learners and cannot simply be transferred from one institution to another, complicating efforts to register learners caught between the competing institutional arrangements.
The court consequently summoned Kimani, who had been issued the relevant records, while KNEC Chief Executive Njengere is expected to provide clarity on how the examination-registration problem can be resolved within the applicable rules.
One practical proposal before the court is for the affected learners to sit their assessments at a neighbouring secondary school. The government has indicated that arrangements could be made for the learners to use the nearby institution, although representatives of Gatoto have raised questions about how the arrangement would work in practice.
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Another proposal discussed in the proceedings is for KNEC to facilitate the registration process through an appropriate institutional arrangement. The significance of these proposals is that they could separate the learners’ examination needs from the longer-running dispute over Gatoto’s legal and administrative status.
The September 29 appearance is expected to bring greater clarity on three immediate questions: how the affected learners will be registered, where they will sit their assessments, and how their examination records will be secured.
For the affected children and their families, the answer cannot wait for the wider Gatoto dispute to run its full legal course.
By Hillary Muhalya
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