The Ministry of Education is once again at the centre of a major scandal after lawmakers exposed how millions of shillings from the Sh1.3 billion infrastructure fund were paid out to fictitious schools, allegedly through a well-organised cartel operating within the ministry.

Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba was grilled over reports that officials at Jogoo House colluded to divert public funds meant for school infrastructure development to non-existent institutions.

The fund is intended to improve facilities such as classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and provide schools with essential learning resources.

Lawmakers revealed that fake schools were created on paper, complete with false enrolment figures and fabricated locations—in a fraudulent scheme to siphon funds from the education budget.

Luanda MP Dick Maungu, who led the charge, presented a list of four schools as evidence. Two of them, Bomet High School and Kamuret Secondary School, do not exist but were each allocated Sh50 million for infrastructure upgrades.

The other two, Olbutyo Boys and Olbutyo Girls secondary schools, while genuine, are located very close to each other—raising fairness concerns about how resources were distributed.

Maungu alleged that the original list of schools approved by Parliament had been tampered with by senior ministry officials, allowing ghost institutions to be inserted and funded.

“There is a dark area in the infrastructure funding. Names of schools that did not come from this House found their way into the list and were given millions of shillings,” Maungu said.

He added, “Ghost schools received money despite not approved by this House; there is a strong cartel in your ministry. You oversight a ministry full of cartels because, how do you explain that several schools which were in the list did not receive any money and ghost schools were given millions?”

He also questioned how two schools located nearly on the same compound each ended up receiving millions, while deserving schools in other areas got nothing.

Maungu challenged the Cabinet Secretary to present a full list of all schools that benefited from the Sh1.3 billion fund, arguing that most on the list do not actually exist.

“The reason why the Cabinet Secretary cannot table the list is because of the anomalies,” he claimed.

Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gisairo backed the call for a thorough investigation, terming the revelations disturbing.

“You are running a ministry that should be branded a cartel. If the infrastructure fund can be siphoned this way it therefore means that capitation is worse,” Gisairo said.

In response, CS Ogamba assured the lawmakers that the matter would be fully investigated and promised to submit a complete list of all beneficiary schools.

“I have given clear instructions that we need the list and probably we will visit schools to ascertain whether they exist or not,” he said.