NAIROBI, Kenya — The Office of the Auditor-General has raised queries over Sh92.8 billion allocated to public schools for capitation, citing weak financial controls, unreliable student data, and governance gaps that could undermine the integrity of Kenya’s free education programme.
In the latest audit review of education spending, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu flagged inconsistencies in the management and verification of funds disbursed to schools under government-funded programmes, including Free Primary Education and Free Day Secondary Education.
The audit notes that capitation allocations are largely calculated based on enrolment figures captured in the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), but records used to justify billions of shillings in public expenditure could not be fully verified.
The discrepancies raise concerns about whether some schools may have received funds based on inaccurate or inflated learner numbers.
Government capitation grants are meant to cover operational costs in public schools, including teaching materials, utilities, examinations, and infrastructure maintenance.
Under current policy, allocations are issued on a per-learner basis using data submitted by school administrators through the NEMIS platform.
However, the audit found gaps in oversight and financial management, including cases where documentation supporting expenditures was incomplete or inconsistent with official records. Such weaknesses, the report warns, create an environment where funds could be misallocated or improperly accounted for.
The findings come amid wider scrutiny of enrolment data across the education sector. Earlier verification exercises by the Ministry of Education uncovered 973,634 “ghost learners” in the national database after a forensic audit compared NEMIS records with physical school registers.
The exercise prevented the release of about Sh912 million in capitation payments that would have been issued for non-existent students.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has previously acknowledged the discrepancies and said the government launched a nationwide verification exercise to clean up school data and ensure capitation funds reach legitimate institutions.
“Heads of institutions are the custodians of school data and are personally responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all learner records entered into the system,” Ogamba said when releasing the verification findings.
Past audits have already revealed similar irregularities, including instances where funds were disbursed to non-existent institutions or schools that had ceased operations, as well as significant mismatches between NEMIS records and physical enrolment registers.
Under Article 229 of the Constitution of Kenya, the Auditor-General is mandated to audit and report on the accounts of all government entities and public funds to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of taxpayer resources.
