A parliamentary committee has raised questions over the expenditure of Sh720 million on government-sponsored students in private universities. It emerged that some of the funds were disbursed to students who were not placed by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).
This emerged as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly was told that some of the private universities that received the capitation funds deliberately declined to provide data to Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu on the students who benefited from the government funding.
Higher Education Principal Secretary Dr Beatrice Inyangala, while blaming the Office of the Auditor-General for relying on unverified data, had a hard time before the PAC to justify the expenditure, with the committee members demanding explanations on the matter flagged by Ms Gathungu.
Kenyan students voice concerns over university funding model
But Dr Inyangala told the committee that after an analysis by the Universities Fund, it was established that the students were placed by KUCCPS but did not provide the required documentation to the committee to justify her response.
The PS noted that as part of its standard operating procedure, the University Fund “usually validates students’ placements in various universities with KUCCPS before preparing the apportionment schedules for the disbursement.”
“During this review, the Office of the Auditor-General relied on initial placement data without capturing subsequent transfers from public universities to private universities or even from one private university to another,” said the PS.
The PS, however, admitted that the students exceeded their expected academic programme duration because of their inability to pay their tuition fees. This led to delays in the completion of their studies as well as repetition of classes.
The questionable use of public funds comes at a time when public universities like Moi University and the University of Nairobi are almost shutting down because of lack of funding from the government.
The report of the Auditor-General on the accounts of the State Department for Higher Education for the 2022/23 financial year shows that of the funds, Sh201.64 million was disbursed to 15 private universities as capitation grants to 4,521 students not placed by KUCCPS.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu before a parliamentary committee on September 4, 2024.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
The audit also indicates that Sh421.73 million was disbursed to 9,489 students who had stayed in universities beyond the duration of their course programmes.
The report further flagged Sh17.8 million in double payments of the capitation funds to the students, Sh35.2 million for the students who had already graduated and Sh53.6 million disbursed for the students who had deferred their studies or were on long academic leave.
Committee members Nabii Nabwera (Lugari), Joseph Emathe (Turkana Central) and Geoffrey Ruku (Mbeere North) demanded to know why the government was keen on financing private universities despite an admission by Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos that 25 of the 35 public universities are technically insolvent.
“You are funding private universities at the expense of the public universities. What is the justification?” posed Mr Nabwera, noting that sponsoring students who had long deferred their studies is a gross abuse of public funds.
According to Mr Emathe, public universities are suffering because the government favours private universities.
“These funding discrepancies are some of the reasons that have crippled education standards in this country. We need to make a statement out of this,” said Mr Emathe with Mr Ruku noting that it cannot be that the private are making profits from public funds yet they are not sharing anything with the exchequer.
“These funds were disbursed to the private universities so that they could make profit with no remittances to the exchequer,” said Mr Ruku.
At some point, Dr Inyangala agreed with the findings of the Auditor-General on the students who had overstayed in universities.
She, however, clarified that an analysis by the Universities Fund confirmed that 5,154 students exceeded their study level and that the corresponding expenditure amounted to Sh183.8 million.”
“The variance between the Office of the Auditor-General findings and University Fund analysis shows a difference of 4,335 students and Sh228.93 million in expenditure,” the PS said.
