- The County Education Board is accused of demanding unreceipted cash levies from learners, violating the Basic Education Act.
- Reports indicate levies of KSh30 for primary/junior learners and KSh70 for senior students, computed from NEMIS enrolment data.
- The County Director of Education and North Eastern Regional Director had not commented on the matter by press time
The Garissa County Education Board, the statutory organ mandated to oversee basic education in the county, is facing allegations of secretly imposing cash levies on learners in violation of the Basic Education Act.
According to sources within the education sector who requested anonymity, the board is said to demand KSh30 per child in primary and junior schools and KSh70 per student in senior schools. The levies are reportedly computed using NEMIS enrolment data and collected through the office of the County Director of Education, which serves as the board’s secretariat.
What has raised the most concern is the claim that the collections made from schools are made in cash and remain unreceipted. If confirmed, such an arrangement would leave no audit trail, placing the funds beyond scrutiny and directly contravening the law that requires all payments to be receipted and authorised by the Ministry of Education.
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For balanced reporting, Education News contacted the Garissa County Director of Education, Mr Abdihamid Maalim, and the North Eastern Regional Director of Education, Mr Aden Roble, for their response. Both are yet to comment by the time of going to press.
The allegations come against the backdrop of Garissa’s long‑standing education challenges. The county consistently ranks at the bottom of national literacy tables, with surveys showing that fewer than four in ten residents can read and write, compared to a national average of just over 70 per cent.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) further places Garissa among the four poorest counties in the country, with 67.8 per cent of residents living below the poverty line and more than half unable to meet their basic food needs, making any additional levies on learners particularly controversial.
By Our reporter
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