Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has boldly and forward-thinkingly declared his full support for digitizing school capitation disbursements, claiming that the new method will close gaps and stop the misappropriation of billions of public dollars.
Speaking at a recent education stakeholders’ forum in Nairobi, Mudavadi revealed that the government loses an estimated Ksh2 billion annually due to irregularities, ghost students, and manual inefficiencies in the current capitation model. He noted that the digital overhaul is not just a tech upgrade, but a necessary reform to restore accountability, transparency, and trust in the education financing system.
“Digitizing the school capitation process is no longer optional. It is an urgent national priority,” Mudavadi emphasized. “We cannot continue to pour resources into a broken system while our children suffer from underfunded classrooms, unpaid teachers, and inadequate learning materials.”
The digitized capitation model, currently being piloted in select counties, aims to use real-time data from the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) to allocate funds based on accurate student enrollment figures. The move is expected to drastically reduce incidences of over-reporting by school heads and curb cases where non-existent students are used to siphon public money.
While some stakeholders have expressed concerns about system roll-out delays and connectivity issues in remote areas, Mudavadi assured that adequate infrastructure support and training are being prioritized to ensure a smooth transition nationwide.
Education CS Ezekiel Machogu echoed Mudavadi’s sentiments, stating that the new system will also improve planning and budgeting efficiency across public primary and secondary schools.
As Kenya braces for a new academic year, the push for digital transformation in education funding could mark a significant shift toward financial discipline, and potentially set a precedent for reform across other sectors.
