Senator Seki demands answers on missing billions in school funding 

Parliament Buildings
Wednesday, 23rd July 2025

Senator Kanar Seki (Kajiado) has demanded urgent accountability from the Ministry of Education following revelations of massive discrepancies in the disbursement of capitation funds to public schools across the country.

Speaking in the Senate, Senator Seki referred to a special audit report that uncovered significant underfunding and financial irregularities for the Financial Years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. According to the report, public secondary schools were underfunded by Kshs. 71 billion, Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) by Kshs. 31 billion, primary schools by Kshs. 14 billion and Special Needs Education (SNE) in secondary schools by Kshs. 67 billion.

More alarming were findings that 14 non-existent schools received capitation funds amounting to Kshs. 16 billion, while six other schools that had already closed down continued to receive funding. Senator Seki termed the revelations as a serious breach of public trust and questioned the transparency and accountability of the Ministry of Education and its affiliated 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 is calling on the Senate’s Standing Committee on Education to provide a detailed explanation of the steps being taken to address underfunding particularly in JSS given the high operational and infrastructural demands posed by the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

Senator Seki also wants clarification on how the 14 ghost schools were included in the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) database without proper verification. He demanded the identification of officials from the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury responsible for the inclusion and irregular payments and further asked for an update on actions being taken to recover lost funds and hold the individuals accountable.

The Committee chaired by Sen. Betty Montet is required to establish whether the Ministry of Education intends to undertake a comprehensive verification exercise to ascertain the accuracy and integrity of the data in the NEMIS database to avert loss of public funds through further disbursement of capitation funds to non-existent or non-operational schools.