Education authorities are seeking to establish why more two million primary school learners are missing from its education records, raising concerns over the accuracy of enrolment data used to plan and finance schools.
According to Mr Mujumba Obwoyere, a senior official in charge of overseeing the deployment of the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS), the system has captured about 5.05 million primary school learners against an expected 7.2 million in public and private institutions.
He said the Ministry of Education had already conducted an institution registry and uploaded details onto the system but discovered that some registered schools had no learners on record.
“We did not expect that, but we are working on establishing why some of these institutions, even though on boarded, have zero learners. We are also establishing learner's registry, human resources registry and others that are important to help us in decision-making,” he said.
Mr Obwoyere said the learner registry would help the government establish how children were progressing through their education journey and provide information to guide planning and decision-making.
He said the discrepancy of the primary schools’ data was the ministry's biggest concern, as enrolment figures for senior and junior schools were closer to the expected numbers.
Speaking during the 2026 Kenya Comprehensive School Heads Association (KECSHA) annual conference in Mombasa, Mr Obwoyere said the government was working to establish why the primary school figures were significantly below the expected enrolment.
“As we move towards the next generation of education, data is becoming a key thing in terms of what we use to deliver education. As we go through the reforms, you notice that data now is becoming a very key thing. We are generating a lot of data but we are not utilising it. Why? Because we have not put in place systems to utilise it,” he said.
According to KEMIS data as at November 10 2026, primary schools had recorded 2.615 million male learners and 2.442 million female learners, bringing the total to approximately 5.057 million.
Mr Obwoyere said the Education ministry expected primary school enrolment to stand at 7.2 million learners, leaving a gap of nearly two million.
He said senior schools had recorded 1.644 million male learners and 1.615 million female learners, bringing their total enrolment to approximately 3.259 million against an expected 3.5 million.
Head Teachers attending the Kenya Comprehensive School Heads Association (KECSHA) National Annual General Meeting in Mombasa on November 11, 2026.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation
Junior schools had 1.637 million male learners and 1.546 million female learners, giving a combined enrolment of approximately 3.183 million.
Mr Obwoyere said the ministry was working to establish learner, institution and human resource registries to improve the collection and use of education data.
He noted that although the education sector was generating a lot of data, it was not being fully utilised because the systems required to process and apply it were not yet in place.
He said the world was increasingly relying on evidence to make decisions, making accurate learner records important in the delivery of education.
The concerns over enrolment data come as the Ministry of Education warns schools that failure to enter learners in KEMIS could affect their capitation funding.
The Head of the Directorate of Field Coordination and Co-curricular Activities, Mr Nelson Sifuna, said schools that had not captured all their learners in the system would not be funded.
“Colleagues, two million of our children have not been captured on KEMIS. That means, you will not be funded. Kindly, we have employed even ICT officers at your service,” he said.
Mr Sifuna urged the more than 15,000 school administrators attending the conference to use all available means to ensure that learners were captured in the system.
“We are concerned when we receive complaints from schools that they have not received 100 per cent of their capitation. We understand the challenges you face in running schools, but unless learners' names are captured in KEMIS, there is no other system we will use to allocate funding. Ultimately, we do not want a situation where learners are declared to be ghost pupils,” said Mr Sifuna.
The government began the transition from the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) to the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS) in 2024, with the new platform intended to address weaknesses in the management of education data.
The Ministry of Education formally unveiled the transition in 2025, saying KEMIS would consolidate learner records previously held in separate databases covering basic education, technical and vocational training institutions and universities.
The new system is intended to provide accurate and verifiable enrolment data, track learners throughout their education journey and guide the allocation of capitation, teachers, textbooks and other resources.
Nationa Media Group Workers share their quality work done at the Newspapers Printing Press in Nairobi as the Company seeks to engage Education Stakeholders to make good use of the Speacialised Printing Machine on November 11, 2026.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation
He asked KECSHA officials to organise clusters of schools to help head teachers achieve 100 per cent learner registration.
He said the ministry had removed most of the barriers to ensure all Kenyan children were captured in KEMIS, adding that the number of learners recorded in the system would determine the amount of money schools receive.
“We don't feel good when we get reports that you are complaining that you have not gotten 100 per cent of capitation. We know also the challenges you go through in schools. But unless those names are captured on KEMIS, there is no other tool we are going to use to fund you,” he said.
Mr Sifuna said the government needed evidence that all learners listed by schools were actually enrolled in the institutions to avoid cases of ghost learners.
The head of the Directorate of Primary Education Mr Stephen Barongo said the ministry has allowed learners’ details to be entered on the new system without a birth certificate. Initially, birth certificates were a mandatory requirement to be bonded in KEMIS. However, many school going children still lack the crucial document.
“The Ministry of Education, through the Principal Secretary, gives us money to give to you, money enough to reach all the learners, you have only on condition they must be captured in KEMIS. We have gone ahead to allow the learners who don’t have birth certificates to be captured on KEMIS by using their parents’ IDs. I know there are areas where ID cards are a problem but the number could have been higher,” said Mr Barongo.
