Kajiado Senator Kanar Seki has raised alarm in the Senate over major financial irregularities in the education sector, demanding immediate accountability for billions of shillings allegedly lost through underfunding and fraudulent disbursement of capitation funds to schools.

Citing a special audit report presented before the House, Senator Seki said public schools across the country were severely underfunded in the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 financial years, with the report exposing massive shortfalls and questionable disbursements.

According to the report, secondary schools were underfunded by Sh71 billion, junior secondary schools by Sh31 billion, primary schools by Sh14 billion, while special needs secondary education lost out on Sh67 billion.

Even more shocking, the audit revealed that 14 non-existent schools received a total of Sh16 billion in capitation funds, while six schools that had already closed continued to receive money from the government.

Senator Seki described the revelations as a gross violation of public trust and questioned the internal controls of the Ministry of Education and its agencies.

“These revelations raise fundamental questions about transparency and accountability within the Ministry of Education and related agencies. Disbursing billions to non-existent or non-operational schools, while learners face teacher shortages, infrastructure challenges, congestion, and delayed funding, is a betrayal of the Kenyan people,” said Senator Seki.

He urged the Senate’s Standing Committee on Education to urgently explain the measures being put in place to address the severe underfunding of Junior Secondary Schools, especially considering the demands of the Competency-Based Curriculum.

Senator Seki also demanded answers on how the 14 ghost schools were added to the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) database without proper verification.

He called for the identification of officials from both the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury who were responsible for the irregular entries and disbursements, and asked for an update on the steps being taken to recover the lost funds and hold those involved accountable.

He further challenged the Committee, which is chaired by Senator Betty Montet, to establish whether the Ministry intends to conduct a full verification exercise of all schools in the NEMIS database to ensure future disbursements are only made to genuine and operational institutions.