TSC disciplines school heads for acquiring money illegally

Two secondary school principals in Homa Bay County have been demoted for illegally receiving hundreds of thousands of shillings in government aid money for their schools.

Jeremiah Onyango Otieno of Kamolo Secondary School and Naphtaly Obiero of Kodhoch Secondary School were accused of inflating enrolment figures to get more money for free day secondary education.

Diosiana Ahindukha, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) director for the county, said the headteachers were relieved of their duties after investigations found them culpable.

Ms Ahindukha said the principals failed to demonstrate honesty in using public funds.

She said Mr Otieno is accused of irregularly spending Sh743,560.

"Mr Otieno received Sh642,500 resulting from inflated enrolment of students.

"He has not accounted for 49,780 besides failing to account for Sh51,280 he transferred from [the] operations account to [the] school funds account," she said.

She added that the investigations report required Mr Otieno to refund the money but he had failed to do so.

Mr Obiero, on the other hand, is accused of receiving Sh476,190 in excess free-education money.

Ms Ahindukha said Mr Obiero had conflicting numbers of students in various registers held by his school.

"At Kodhoch, the enrolment register indicates a total of 57 students; [the] school fees register has 47 while [the] attendance register has 46 students," she said.

She said that under TSC regulations the principals will continue serving as assistant teachers until their cases are concluded.