Public schools could have channelled billions of shillings to the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA), prompting MPs to demand a full audit of the payments and an explanation of how the money has been handled.
The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education wants KESSHA officials to appear before it and explain the association’s legal status, its financial dealings with public schools and how it accounts for funds received from the institutions.
The committee, chaired by Luanda MP Dickson Maungu, began examining the payments after the Auditor-General raised concerns over money transferred directly from public secondary schools to KESSHA.
The association is a welfare organisation whose membership includes school heads and principals, but MPs questioned whether public schools should be sending taxpayer-funded money to an organisation that does not form part of the Government’s formal financing structure.
The concerns were highlighted by an audit of Asumbi Girls High School, which transferred Sh1.247 million to KESSHA during the year ended June 2024.
The Auditor-General questioned the payment, saying KESSHA is a welfare organisation for school principals and is not recognised within the Government funding system.
The audit also found no assurance that KESSHA had effective, efficient and transparent financial management and internal control systems for handling money transferred by schools.
It further established that the payment contravened Regulation 23(2)(c) of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations, 2015. The regulation requires an accounting officer to obtain written assurance from an entity before transferring funds to it.
“Management was in breach of the law, and the value for money realized from the expenditure of Sh1,247,220 could not be confirmed,” the Auditor-General said.
Asumbi Girls Chief Principal Linet Pino Sati told MPs that the contribution was intended to support co-curricular activities organised through KESSHA.
“The funds transferred to KESSHA are for conducting co-curricular activities. Each year KESSHA sends requests to schools for funding the budget for co-curricular activities and Asumbi Girls High School is not exempted,” Ms Sati said.
Maseno School principal Peter Owino Otieno also told the committee that the payments supported student welfare and enabled learners to participate in sports, drama, music and other competitions.
“The payments were purely for student welfare and co-curricular activities,” Mr Owino said, adding that failure to make the payments could prevent students from taking part in regional and national competitions.
Nyabururu Girls High School Principal Joyce Orioki said KESSHA coordinates activities at grassroots and zonal levels, with the contributions generally determined by the number of students in a school.
She, however, acknowledged that KESSHA’s accounts were not audited, an admission that raised further questions from the committee over the management of money coming from public institutions.
Maungu said the explanations provided by school heads had not addressed the central issue of whether public funds could legally be transferred to a private members’ organisation whose accountability systems remain unclear.
“What is coming out clearly is that most of these schools contribute money to an organisation known as KSSHA,” he said.
The committee heard that one school had paid about Sh6 million to KESSHA over five years, while another had transferred approximately Sh5 million during the same period.
“These are billions if you convert them into all the schools in the country,” Maungu said.
“We want to find out whether KESSHA is a recipient of public money and whether the activities they are undertaking are audited by the Auditor-General.”
Kiminini MP Maurice Kakai Bisau questioned the position of KESSHA within the education system and why public schools should finance an organisation outside the formal Government structure.
“KESSHA remains a private club managed by members of the teaching fraternity,” Mr Bisau said.
Lungalunga MP Chiforomodo Mangale said the committee first needed to establish the legal basis for the transfers before determining whether the money was being properly managed.
“We must start from the point of understanding how these funds are transferred. KSSHA is an association for teachers and school heads, but it has no direct relationship with government,” he said.
Maungu said MPs were not opposed to co-curricular activities, but wanted to establish whether public funds could be channelled through an organisation without clear accountability.
“The education activities may be good and necessary, but that does not mean public funds can be transferred outside the framework of the law,” he said.
The committee will summon KESSHA officials to explain the association’s relationship with the Ministry of Education and account for money received from public schools.
The officials will also be expected to state the total amount collected from schools, explain how the funds have been spent and clarify whether KESSHA’s financial records are subjected to independent or statutory audits.
The probe could lead to a wider examination of payments made by public secondary schools to KESSHA, with MPs warning that contributions from individual institutions could add up to billions of shillings nationally.