Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has dismissed allegations that the government disbursed Ksh 1.1 billion to non-existent schools, clarifying that his earlier remarks were misunderstood.
Speaking on Wednesday, Ogamba explained that his statements in Parliament were in reference to schools that had not yet submitted the required data during the Ministry’s ongoing verification exercise. He stressed that the full Ksh 1.1 billion had not been released to any institutions at the time of his parliamentary address.
“We did not say that there are ghost schools. What I indicated in Parliament is that, as at that time, we had not released Ksh 1.1 billion to schools that had not submitted their data,” Ogamba said.
He further clarified that approximately 990 schools had pending data submissions, prompting the Ministry to release only 50 percent of the capitation funds to some of these institutions.
“What happened is that schools did not submit the data, so we decided to release 50 percent of the capitation to some of them. This affected about 990 schools at that time,” the CS added.
Verification Process Ongoing
Ogamba assured the public that the Ministry will release the complete and verified data once the verification process is finalized.
The controversy arose after his earlier remarks on November 5, where he told lawmakers that the government had been disbursing funds to “students that do not exist.” Lawmakers criticized the comments, interpreting them as implying that public money had gone to non-existent schools.
“This exercise is vital because, as we complete verification, only 934 schools remain to be verified. The Ksh 1.1 billion mentioned refers to funds for students not yet verified, which underscores the importance of this exercise,” Ogamba told MPs.
Action Against Ministry Officers
Lawmakers, led by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula, questioned what disciplinary measures had been taken against ministry officers, given past instances of widespread corruption.
“Public money has been wired to non-existent schools for non-existent students. How many officers have been interdicted for this?” Speaker Wetangula asked.
Ogamba responded that no action has yet been taken, as the verification process must first identify culpable officers.
Since the exercise began, the Ministry has already closed 10 secondary schools due to insufficient student enrollment, as part of ongoing efforts to ensure accountability and proper resource allocation.
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Education