How taxpayers lost billions funding schools that were closed years ago

Billions of shillings in taxpayers’ money were lost through funding ‘ghost’ schools that had already shut down, some of them quietly remaining on government records for up to six years after closing, while others lacked students or had extremely low enrollment.

The Saturday Standard has established that some 26 public schools were shut but their closure was never reported to the Ministry of Education. 

This includes 16 primary and 10 secondary schools. The details are contained in an audit report.

The document titled ‘’Report on School Data Verification’’, which is yet to be launched, further unearthed 230 schools flagged for having 10 learners or fewer.

These numbers are considered to be below the minimum enrolment threshold by the Ministry of Education.

The bulk of these schools are found at the junior school level, where 214 institutions were confirmed to have enrollment below 10 learners. 

With the government providing Sh1,420 as capitation for primary schools, these schools received less than Sh15,000 annually as capitation under the Free Primary Education programme, raising questions about the viability of the institutions to provide effective teaching.

The report lays bare the extent of the rot in school funding as schools that both lacked students and others with extremely low enrollment remained in the funding portal of the Ministry of Education.

This now raises questions about who failed to report the closures. How much money was sent to schools that no longer existed?

And who benefited from funds released to institutions that had stopped teaching learners years earlier?

Most fundamental is the weak link in the Ministry of Education, which has reporting structures from the county to sub-County level.

The most shocking of the cases was recorded in Isiolo, where a school named Bisanadhi Primary School, which shut down in November 2019 due to insecurity, remained on government records until October 2025.

This means the school continued to operate as a ghost institution for a full six years after closing.

In Murang’a County, Nguchu Primary School closed in January 2023 after learner numbers dropped sharply. 

Yet the school continued to operate nearly three years later and was only reported as closed to the Basic Education Principal Secretary in November 2025.

Similar cases appear across the country. Masalale North Primary School in Wajir stopped operating in April 2024 because of insecurity, but its closure was reported 19 months later.

In Kericho, Masobet Primary School, which closed in February 2024 following staff layoffs, was only flagged in October 2025.

In Mombasa, Kisauni Baptist Primary School, which closed in 2023 after a court order withdrew its public school status, continued to appear as active until November 2025. 

Meanwhile, in Marsabit, Gufu Ali Primary School, which shut down in July 2022 due to insecurity and vandalism, was only reported three years later.

The report equally raises questions over the sustainability of the institutions with fewer than 10 learners and the quality of teaching and learning in the schools.

The report has recommended the consolidation of the schools below threshold with nearby schools, conversion to satellite learning centres, or formal closure following laid-down procedures.

Educationist Janet Ouko Muthoni on Friday questioned how these institutions continued to operate under the watch of the Ministry of Education officials without a concrete decision to act on them.

“It is impossible for a school to operate with such a low number of students unless it has alternative funding. How many teachers are in these schools? Such schools would have been flagged out a long time ago and clear steps taken to ensure the learners are not disadvantaged. As it is, no quality learning can take place,” Muthoni said.

However, no secondary schools were flagged for operating with fewer than 10 learners.

The report indicates that the schools operating with fewer than 10 learners were suspended from receiving capitation pending an administrative decision by the Ministry of Education. 

The ministry attributes the rise in below-threshold schools to a mix of demographic shifts and learner movement. 

These include rural-to-urban migration, insecurity in parts of the country, declining birth rates in some regions, and competition from better-resourced schools nearby. 

Despite existing guidelines to merge, downgrade or close schools that fall below viable enrolment levels, the report states that implementation has been slow and uneven. 

The Ministry of Education indicates that the closure of these institutions has been compromised by communities resisting the closure or merging of schools for cultural or logistical reasons.

The report further recommends faster decision-making, tighter enrolment monitoring and real-time data updates under the planned transition from the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) to the new Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS), which is expected to reduce the persistence of low-enrolment and non-viable schools in the public system.