Taxpayers may have been losing about Sh5 billion every year due to inaccurate schools’ enrolment data, according to revelations from a nationwide learner verification exercise conducted by the Ministry of Education.
The exercise, carried out from September to December last year, shows a 16.5 per cent drop in primary school enrolment and a 2.64 per cent decline in secondary schools after unauthenticated learners were excluded from official records.
Since government funding is calculated on a per-learner basis, the corrections have direct implications on how public funds have been distributed over the years.
It is, however, not clear how long the government used erroneous data to fund education programmes.
Using conservative government capitation rates about Sh1,420 per primary school learner and Sh22,244 per secondary school learner annually, the revised enrolment figures translate to an estimated Sh3.4 billion in primary school funding and Sh1.9 billion in secondary school capitation that may previously have been paid out based on inflated or unauthenticated figures.
This puts the exaggerated annual public funding at about Sh5.3 billion. This does not include junior school allocations, infrastructure grants, and Special Needs Education funding, implying that the actual figure could be higher.
According to the verification report, thousands of learners were excluded from funding after failing to meet authentication requirements, including missing birth certificates, incomplete learner profiles, or inconsistencies in school records.
Only learners whose details were successfully verified were retained for funding consideration. Additionally, 26 schools were found to be non-operational, meaning they are currently not functioning or providing educational services due to issues such as closures, lack of staff, or inadequate facilities.
“The verification exercise has so far cleared 53,015 schools for capitation, covering a total of 11,028,861 learners. While most schools complied, 181 submitted data in formats not specified, 24 schools have yet to submit, 495 schools had invalid assessment numbers, and 406 schools had valid assessment numbers matched to different Knec centre codes. Currently, 11 schools are still being verified, and 26 are Non–Operational Schools,” reads the audit.
The report further shows that 1,841 primary schools and 1,661 junior schools failed to submit any data during the exercise, while 38 Special Needs Education schools recorded zero learner submissions, raising questions about compliance and oversight within the education system.
The findings appear to reinforce long-standing concerns raised by the Auditor-General, who has previously warned of “ghost learners” and discrepancies in enrolment data that expose the education sector to misuse of public funds.
In July 2025, a special audit report revealed that taxpayers lost over Sh3.7 billion to ghost students and non-existent schools due to widespread discrepancies in the National Education Management Information System (Nemis).
The audit, sanctioned by the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and chaired by Butere MP Tindi Mwale, covered the financial years 2020/2021 to 2023/2024.
Tindi Mwale, chairperson of the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee and Butere MP, at Bunge Towers on April 10, 2025.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo| Nation Media Group
It found that 354 secondary schools received capitation funds exceeding their actual enrollment, resulting in an overpayment of Sh3.59 billion. Nearly ninety-nine junior secondary schools were overfunded by Sh30.8 million, while 270 primary schools also received capitation for non-existent learners.
In total, the overfunding across all school levels surpassed Sh3.7 billion, largely attributed to inflated student numbers recorded in Nemis—contrary to Ministry of Education guidelines that capitation should be based strictly on verified enrollment.
Further details presented to the committee by the Office of the Auditor General revealed that, out of 83 schools sampled, 14 schools received capitation totalling Sh16.6 billion, yet investigations showed these schools did not exist.
"However, the schools did not appear in the County Director of Education's records, and the CDEs were not aware of their existence," Auditor Justus Okumu told MPs.
Ministry of Education officers use the National Education Management Information System to verify details of Form One students at Kakamega Boys High School on January 7, 2019.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The verification exercise also exposed institutional weaknesses in the National Education Management Information System (Nemis), prompting the ministry to rely on an external tool for physical verification. Analysts argue that the lack of routine physical audits allowed inaccurate data to persist for years without detection.
“The findings indicated that the Nemis system had challenges, such as limited functionalities in regard to learner movement (transfers, dropouts, deaths, etc), which may have given inaccurate enrolment data. The Ministry should undertake a comprehensive system audit of Nemis,” read the audit.
The audit of school records has revealed a discrepancy of 87,730 learners, raising concerns about the existence of “ghost learners” in the system. While the Ministry of Education had initially projected 3.35 million students across 9,550 schools, verification showed that only 3.26 million learners in 9,540 schools were eligible for government funding.
“The findings of the verification exercise established that there were incomplete school submissions, such as failure to capture learner identifiers by Heads of Institutions, which hindered full validation. The Ministry, therefore, should develop an Education Management Information System that utilises learner biometrics,” reads the audit.
