Education CS George Magoha has denied claims that some former officials at the education ministry were involved in a fraudulent scheme involving ghost students’ and fictitious schools.
He further explained that officials at his ministry regularly held counting exercises to ascertain the number of students.
“The best data is actually at KNEC, having worked there myself. Even in the ministry now, we have physically counted children, the schools and the teachers.
“I am not going to answer to rumours. I don’t think that is something that we should worry about. The whole government is out there, if a child does not appear, I remember I went to get one 30 minutes after he failed to appear,” said Magoha.
Three ODM MPs, Antony Oluoch of Mathare Mathare, Justus Kizito (Sinyalu) and Hassan Zuleikha (Kwale), demanded action be taken against certain education officials who were embezzling up to Ksh 114 million through ghost students.
The scandal was exposed by the Public Accounts Committee which indicated that a clerical officer in an education office in Kakamega had set up a fake school for years.
“We want action. Everyone who has been in a position of decision-making in the periods where queries are emerging must be held to account no matter where they are today,” argued Kizito.
In their argument, the lawmakers claimed that there may be more ghost schools apart from the one recently unearthed by the Parliamentary Committee.
“This is just a case of one school discovered in Kakamega. How many more schools exist where public money is syphoned in ghosts schools, and who are these shadowy people who have access to this account, sign out this money and then the money is accounted for over the years as money given for capitation and infrastructure,” questioned Oluoch.
