Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has been summoned by lawmakers to explain weaknesses in the disbursement of capitation funds, even as the Ministry of Education carries out a nationwide data verification exercise to weed out ghost schools.
“We have planned a meeting with the Ministry of Education officials led by the CS. They should tell us what they are doing to address these capitation issues,” Tinderet MP Julius Melly who chairs the National Assembly’s Education Committee told a local media house.
The special audit recently tabled before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), showed that 14 non-existent schools received more than Sh20 million in capitation and infrastructure grants between 2020/21 and 2023/24. Some schools only existed on paper, while others had shut down but continued to draw funding.
“The ghost schools are in the system but when we got to the ground, we did not find them,” said Justus Okumu, Director of Audit at the Office of the Auditor-General. “Education officers could not show us where they exist.”
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The report also flagged irregular withdrawals from tuition accounts and faulted the current capitation model as inequitable, warning that undeserving learners may have benefited.
The findings added urgency to the Ministry’s ongoing data verification exercise, which CS Ogamba has used to justify delays in releasing school funds.
“We must verify and confirm the number of learners and schools before releasing money. We have to be more careful than before,” said CS Ogamba.
According to the audit, the education sector faces a funding gap of Sh117 billion, with secondary schools recording the largest shortfall at Sh71 billion, followed by junior schools (Sh31.9B), primary schools (Sh14B), and special needs institutions (Sh67.1M).
The ghost school scam has persisted for years. In 2020, then Education CS George Magoha estimated that more than Sh750 million was lost annually through inflated enrolments. The latest audit confirms the problem remains entrenched, underscoring why the ministry has embarked on a cleanup exercise.
By Mercy Kokwon
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