Kenya’s education system is bleeding from every vein—and the officials meant to safeguard it are busy passing the buck. For four straight months, parents, teachers, and learners have been tossed around by contradictory policy pronouncements. What began as whispers of underfunding has snowballed into a full-blown scandal touching every corner of the Ministry of Education.
In April, then PS Dr Belio Kipsang sounded the alarm before Parliament: schools had been left stranded, capitation was underfunded, and not a single shilling had been set aside for exam fees at KNEC.
Weeks later, Treasury CS John Mbadi dropped a bombshell—admitting he had called in the IMF to audit the ministry, citing rampant inflation of student numbers by principals hungry for capitation. His verdict: the current funding model is unsustainable.
The revelations piled on:
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu exposed 33 ghost schools that have been pocketing capitation.
Education PS Prof Julius Bitok admitted that 5,000 senior schools have no Grade 10 intake lined up for 2026—3,100 of them essentially shells with fewer than 150 students.
Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi shocked the nation further with claims that Sh2 billion had been looted inside the ministry.
Only then did President William Ruto step in, promising to keep capitation flowing “at the appropriate rates.”
But the burning questions remain:
Who created the ghost schools?
Will anyone answer for the 50,000 phantom students allegedly feeding off the public purse?
Why are officials and MPs acting like these scandals are new, when reports and warnings have been on record for years?
Two years ago, the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) had spelled it out: raise capitation to Sh2,238 in primary schools, Sh15,043 in junior, and Sh22,547 in senior. The same team flagged a new university funding model—now tied up in court battles. But instead of foresight, Kenyans got fire-fighting, cover-ups, and theft.
The truth is stark: Kenya’s education sector isn’t collapsing by accident—it’s being sabotaged from within. And unless heads roll soon, the real victims will be the taxpayers.
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