Ministry of Education, MoE has withheld capitation funds from 29 newly established schools across the country pending a verification exercise aimed at identifying ghost institutions and ensuring compliance with registration protocols.
Appearing before the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Education yesterday, Ogamba explained that the schools were excluded from third-term disbursements due to unresolved registration queries and incomplete data submissions.
“We are working on it,” Ogamba said, noting that the schools were not yet integrated into the capitation system and may not even have registered candidates. “We cannot disburse funds until these issues are fixed.”
This came in response to concerns raised by Narok County MP Rebecca Tonkei, who questioned why a secondary school in her constituency had never received capitation despite preparing to administer national examinations. “Capitation affects examinations. What are you doing about it?” she asked.
Committee Chair Julius Melly expressed alarm over the situation, criticizing the ministry for allowing schools to register candidates without confirming their eligibility for government funding. “Someone is sleeping on the job,” Melly said. “You are required to enable candidates from those schools to sit for exams and go.”
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Ogamba acknowledged the oversight but emphasized that the verification process is necessary to prevent misuse of public funds. He also revealed that 570 primary schools out of 990 had failed to submit required data, despite receiving 50 per cent of their capitation.
In total, over 6,000 schools including primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary were found to be non-compliant with ministry guidelines.
“More than 900 schools had not released information for their numbers to the ministry,” Ogamba said, adding that some institutions had as few as 45 pupils, raising questions about their operational viability.
The CS further disclosed that the ministry is grappling with a Sh3.2 billion deficit needed to complete the 2025 national examinations. He attributed delays in examiner payments to slow exchequer releases and urged Parliament to protect examination budgets from future cuts.
However, Ogamba assured MPs that the government is fully funding all ongoing national examinations and warned school heads against demanding money from parents.
“No instruction has been given to any principal or head of institution to ask for money from parents for examinations,” he said. “That’s the responsibility of the government.”
The committee is expected to follow up on the verification process and ensure that affected schools are either regularized or excluded from future funding and examination cycles.
By Masaki Enock
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