Frontier Eye Desk
Nairobi, Kenya.
The Ministry of Education has suspended capitation payments to 29 public schools after uncovering registration irregularities in a nationwide audit aimed at eliminating ghost learners and fictitious institutions.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba told the National Assembly Committee on Education on Wednesday that the affected schools registered candidates for national examinations — KPSEA, KJSEA, and KCSE — yet were not listed in the capitation system.
“We cannot even establish if these schools have actual candidates,” Ogamba said, adding that funding will remain withheld until the discrepancies are resolved.
Committee Chair Julius Melly faulted the ministry for the lapse, questioning how the schools were allowed to register candidates without being eligible for government funding.
“Why approve exam registration if they don’t receive capitation? These learners must sit their exams,” he said.
The audit also found that 6,000 schools failed to meet the minimum enrollment threshold — some with as few as 45 pupils — rendering them non-compliant.
Education CS Migos Ogamba appears before the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Education.
In addition, 570 out of 990 primary schools failed to submit enrollment data despite having already received 50 percent of their capitation funds.
So far, the ministry has verified over 29,000 schools and disbursed Sh17.1 billion to support 9.43 million learners.
Ogamba warned that schools found to be ghost institutions risk closure, prosecution of their operators, and recovery of an estimated Sh1.1 billion lost annually to fraudulent claims.
The audit, initiated at the request of the Auditor-General, is part of a wider effort to clean up the education database ahead of full disbursement and the rollout of a new education management information system.