Kenya's Ministry of Education linked to 'ghost schools' scandal: Report

The top officials at the education ministry have been linked to a scandal where public funds were being used for providing education to "non-existing" students in "ghost schools," according to a report by Citizen Digital.

George Magoha, the Education Cabinet Secretary, had stated that more than 500,000 students have been receiving the amount but "they do not even exist," claims the report by Citizen Digital. He further claimed that the ministry has been accumulating a sum of 750,000,000 per annum in the policy of free-primary schooling. He said that the money released by the government was based on records submitted by respective headteachers, which were approved by the directors of eduction till 2018. However, the National Education Management Information system (NEMIS), has launched an online platform to collect all the data of students enrolled and money received by schools.

Although authorities have been muffling in its statement about the discrepancy, Magoha said, “this management approach has been instrumental in identifying lapses within the Ministry where Public Funds have been misappropriated and measures to ensure that I effectively intervene have been deployed,”.

Reportedly, the top ministry officials are also tasked to watch the procurement of desks on the launched platform to keep a check of public money. In the process, the figures presented to CS Magoha were reportedly inflated by an extra Sh 1700 per desk which means the 1.9 billion shillings allocated for the program could only deliver 250,000 desks, claimed the report.