The Ministry of Education has uncovered significant enrollment discrepancies and systemic weaknesses in public schools following a nationwide school data verification exercise, prompting administrative and criminal investigations against dozens of education officials.
Releasing the School Data Verification Report on Thursday, Cabinet Secretary for Education Julius Ogamba said the exercise, which began on September 1, 2025, was aimed at safeguarding public funds and restoring integrity in education data used to allocate government capitation.
“In this context, accurate data is therefore not optional — it is a legal, financial, and ethical obligation,” Ogamba said, reiterating that funding for Free Primary Education, Junior School Education, Free Day Secondary Education and Special Needs Education is strictly based on enrolment figures captured in the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).
The verification covered public primary, junior and secondary schools, as well as special needs institutions across all 47 counties.
It reconciled NEMIS data with independently submitted school-level records validated by Heads of Institutions and Sub-County Directors of Education.
The findings revealed wide variances between NEMIS enrollment figures and verified data.
In primary schools, enrolment dropped from 5,833,175 learners in NEMIS to 4,947,271 after verification — a negative variance of 885,904 learners.
Secondary school enrolment declined by 87,730 learners from 3,352,884 to 3,265,154. However, junior schools recorded an increase of 543,250 learners, rising from 2,430,398 in NEMIS to 2,973,648 after verification.
The report also identified unauthenticated learner records, including missing or invalid Unique Personal Identifiers, duplicated assessment numbers and mismatched examination centre codes.
Additionally, 10 secondary schools and 17 primary schools were found to be non-operational due to insecurity, lack of learners, community relocation or administrative closure, yet they remained listed in NEMIS.
A further 102 junior schools and 84 primary schools were operating below the stipulated minimum enrolment threshold.
Ogamba warned that accountability would extend to school heads and supervisory officers.
“Any deliberate falsification, inflation, or misrepresentation of enrolment data constitutes gross misconduct and a breach of public trust,” he said.
As part of corrective measures, the Ministry has forwarded the report to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for administrative action against 14 Heads of Institution who failed to submit data and 20 others accused of inflating enrolment figures.
Administrative action is also being taken against 28 Sub-County Directors of Education and Quality Assurance and Standards officers in areas where supervisory lapses were established.
The report has further been submitted to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for possible criminal proceedings.
The Ministry has suspended all unverified learners from resource allocation pending authentication and announced that non-operational schools will undergo formal closure or deregistration in accordance with existing laws.
“To restore discipline, protect public resources, and reaffirm the integrity of our education system,” Ogamba said, the Ministry will now conduct data verification on a termly basis, strengthen capacity building on data management, and accelerate the transition from NEMIS to the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS), which promises stronger validation controls and real-time reporting.
