The Ministry of Education is under pressure to explain how, surprisingly, KSh 183 billion in school funding appears to have vanished or been grossly mismanaged over the last two financial years.
Kajiado Senator Kanar Seki stunned fellow lawmakers on Wednesday with revelations from a special audit report that exposed massive funding gaps across Kenya’s public education system.
The report, which covered the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 fiscal years, shows that public secondary schools were short-changed by Ksh 71 billion, Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) by Ksh 31 billion, primary schools by Ksh14 billion, and Special Needs Education (SNE) programs by another Ksh 67 billion.
“It is unacceptable that billions are being disbursed to schools that don’t even exist while real learners continue to suffer,” Senator Seki told the House. “This isn’t just a financial issue it’s a national failure.”He demanded urgent action from the Senate Committee on Education, calling on them to account for the shortfalls and explain how at least 14 ghost schools were added to the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) and allocated funds without verification.
Seki further urged the Ministry to identify the officials both in the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury who may have facilitated the irregular payments.
He also questioned whether the Ministry intends to carry out a nationwide verification exercise to clean up the NEMIS database.
“A proper audit of this system is long overdue,” he said. “We cannot afford to keep wasting taxpayer money while learners are packed into overcrowded classrooms, some without desks, books, or even teachers.”The senator said the findings should prompt a serious rethink of how school capitation funds are distributed and tracked, especially under the growing financial demands of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
His remarks add to growing public frustration over mismanagement in the education sector, where funding delays and infrastructure gaps continue to undermine Kenya’s commitment to free and quality basic education.
