Did a Kenyan Create a Fake Secondary School and Receive Government Funds?

This tweet claiming that a Kenyan created a fake school with 1,000 students on paper and received funds from the Ministry of Education has gone viral online.

Someone in Kenya created a school, gave it bank accounts and 1,000 students on paper and kept receiving government money for the school. No physical school.

— Stone (@StoneAtwine) March 29, 2021

Is it true?

Background

Kenya’s recent free education programmes kicked off on January 6, 2003, when the first batch of pupils was admitted in Kenya’s public primary schools. This followed former president Mwai Kibaki’s campaign pledge in the 2002 elections for a free universal primary education programme.

This was soon followed, 5 years later, by the subsidized secondary education program where the government paid a partial amount of fees in public secondary schools. President Uhuru Kenyatta introduced free secondary education in 2017.

Verification

According to The Standard, a junior Ministry of Education officer created a fictitious secondary school and managed to benefit from over Kshs 11 million. This came to light in a report by the Public Account Committee (PAC) report.

The report also says that another officer inflated enrolment figures in some schools which partly contributed to an overpayment of Ksh. 103 million to 150 schools countrywide.

Kenyans.co.ke further identified the civil servant as Joshua Ocharo Momanyi a clerical officer at the Directorate of Education Offices in Kakamega County. The officer formed Mundeku Secondary School only on paper and added it to the disbursement schedule.

He went ahead to open an Equity Bank account using his credentials as a signatory where he received over Kshs 11 million.

The 2 officers have been interdicted and their cases referred to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for investigations.

Verdict

The claim that a junior Ministry of Education staff opened a fictitious secondary school with an alleged enrolment of 1,000 students and received free secondary education disbursement fees from the government is TRUE.