Julius Migos Ogamba, Education Cabinet Secretary, has announced a sweeping directive requiring all schools in Kenya to re-register through a newly developed digital platform.
The move, aimed at eliminating ghost schools and improving data integrity, will see the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS) replace the outdated National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).
During a live interview on a local radio station on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, the CS stated that the ministry had identified serious discrepancies in the previous system, including the presence of fictitious institutions that received government funding.
He stated that the re-registration process is crucial for restoring credibility and ensuring that public resources are utilized effectively.
“Going forward, to solve the problem of ghost schools, all schools which had registered on NEMIS must re-register under KEMIS so that we have clean data,” Ogamba said.
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KEMIS will require schools to submit detailed and updated information, including their physical address, current enrolment statistics, and the number of teachers on staff. The aim is to create a transparent and verifiable dataset across the education sector.
“We use the system to know the school, where it is, the number of students, and the number of teachers. A credible system,” he stated.
The directive follows concerns raised by Members of Parliament over irregularities in the disbursement of the Ksh1.3 billion school infrastructure fund. Lawmakers claimed that portions of the money had been allocated to non-existent schools, which appeared only on paper and included fabricated student lists and fake locations.
Ogamba was firm in condemning such fraudulent activities, stating that maintaining ghost schools is not just unethical but illegal.
“There is no government policy that supports this. That is an offence, and I stand by it,” he affirmed, adding that a special audit team is working with the Office of the Auditor General to trace and eliminate such loopholes.
The Education CS also touched on higher education reforms, revealing that university tuition fees had been reduced by 15 percent to 30 percent to ease financial pressure on families. He clarified that all government disbursements to institutions are made directly to verified bank accounts, thereby tightening controls and minimising opportunities for fraud.
The Ministry has set an ambitious target to complete the KEMIS re-registration process before the end of the year. Ogamba said the initiative marks a significant step toward strengthening accountability and data-driven governance in the country’s education system.
By Joseph Mambili
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