Tech firm sues Education Ministry over alleged software copyright breach

A tech company has moved to court, seeking to block the Ministry of Education from rolling out a new education management system, accusing officials of copyright breach of a software meant to weed out ghost schools and manage capitation. Cabrytz Limited, in its case filed before the Commercial Court, claimed that after several meetings where its employees Zablon Mboga Gavore and Kevin Omondi Oromo, the ministry officials allegedly went quiet and later on announced that they would be launching a new digital platform dubbed Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS), which bore a striking similarity with their software. The firm's lawyer, Stephen Adier, told Justice Joe Omido that over time, it had developed a system to manage the education system in the country dubbed 'the clickshule system.' He said that his client's employees met the Ministry of Education officials on March 10, March 13, and April 28 last year, with a proposal to deploy the software. Adier further said that they allegedly shared the concept for the system and made presentations relating to the software. "The defendants have, by the aforementioned Infringing system, infringed the plaintiff's copyright in that they have copied, substantially copied and/or caused to be copied or substantially copied, the contents of the ClickShule system without the plaintiff's authorization," argued Adier. He claimed that media reports indicated that the Ministry's KEMIS would cost taxpayers Sh 300 million. In the meantime, the court heard that the software is worth more than 90 billion. In his supporting affidavit, Mboga told the court that the software was developed around 2023 and copyrighted. He said that the first version was deployed internally, then perfected for a period of over two years. "The first presentation of the ClickShule system was with the ICT Department of the Ministry of Education, and the second presentation was with a team of experts from the Legal and Policy Department when they allegedly approached the Ministry. At the final presentation stage, we were asked to do a live presentation of the system to ascertain the proof of concept (PoC) and stress test the system of both the revenue collection model and the data collection, which we did satisfactorily and were accepted by the Ministry of Education," claimed Mboga. According to him, the Ministry allegedly asked them to rebrand the system Comprehensive Integrated Education Management Information System (CIEMIS), which they allegedly did. After that, he claimed that they then allegedly wrote to President William Ruto informing him of the revolutionary system to transform the education system after the ministry allegedly went quiet. Mboga added that he was shocked to know that the ministry announced that it is replacing Nationa Education Management Information System (NEMIS) with KEMIS, which they say it has glaring similarities with the wording, form, and general structure of their clickshule system. "I noticed that in an attempt to disguise the Infringing system as their own, the 1st defendant made minimal changes to the Infringing system. The 1st defendant included several alterations in the infringing policy which do not substantially distinguish the Infringing system from the Plaintiff's ClickShule system," he claimed. Capitation delays have for years pushed schools into debt, forcing administrators to run on credit or pass costs to parents. The early disbursement signals a policy shift as the government seeks to restore confidence in public education financing. However, the reforms come against the backdrop of a damning special audit that exposed how billions of shillings meant for schools were lost through inflated enrolment figures, weak controls, and systemic failures within NEMIS. According to the audit, which will be tabled in Parliament this month, taxpayers lost over Sh3.7 billion between the 2020/2021 and 2023/2024 financial years due to ghost learners and non-existent schools. The audit, sanctioned by the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Butere MP Tindi Mwale, revealed widespread discrepancies across 32 counties, raising serious accountability concerns. The Auditor General found that 354 secondary schools received capitation exceeding their actual enrolment, leading to overpayments of Sh3.59 billion. Nearly 99 junior secondary schools were overfunded by Sh30.8 million, while 270 primary schools received funds for learners who did not exist. In total, overfunding across all levels surpassed Sh3.7 billion, largely driven by inflated data captured in NEMIS. Even more alarming, the audit uncovered that 33 non-existent schools received Sh3.7 billion, while 14 schools sampled in a separate review were paid Sh16.6 billion despite not appearing in records held by County Directors of Education. "The CDEs were not aware of their existence," Auditor Justus Okumu told MPs. The report also revealed that six closed schools received nearly Sh900,000, thirteen schools with mismatched registration names received Sh11 million, and three schools operating a single bank account were paid Sh103.3 million, undermining transparency. Ghost learners were detected in 723 out of 1,039 sampled schools, while weak audit trails and a lack of harmonised data among agencies such as TSC, KNEC, and KEPSEA compounded the problem. "These discrepancies indicate weaknesses in data capture and validation controls, which may lead to misreporting, distorted resource allocation, and potentially enable fraud," Okumu said. While billions were wasted through overfunding, the audit also showed that many schools were severely underfunded. Over four years, public schools suffered a Sh117 billion shortfall. Secondary schools were underfunded by Sh71 billion, junior secondary schools by Sh31.9 billion, and primary schools by Sh14 billion, with Special Needs Education programmes also affected. "The main problem facing public schools is underfunding," Okumu noted, adding that delayed and scaled-down disbursements forced schools to shelve planned activities or accumulate pending bills. In response to the audit findings, the government accelerated the transition from NEMIS to KEMIS, expected to go live in January 2026. Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok said KEMIS will enable real-time tracking of learners, schools, and resources, sealing loopholes that allowed manipulation of data. "NEMIS was not an intelligent system. It was rigid and not integrable to other systems. Starting January 2026, KEMIS will be live... allowing full learner tracking," Bitok said, describing KEMIS as a one-stop platform linking basic education, TVETs, and universities. Under the new system, learner data will be consolidated from early childhood to university level, improving accuracy in teacher deployment, textbook distribution,n and capitation allocation. The platform will also integrate with civil registration systems under the Maisha ecosystem, assigning each learner a Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) from birth. The PS said the integration will ensure accurate tracking of education transitions, including deaths, further strengthening data integrity. Beyond basic education, Ogamba said the government is also addressing affordability at the tertiary level through the Student-Centred Funding Model, which provides scholarships and loans based on need. In court, Cabrytz wants the court to bar the Ministry from rolling out the system. The case will be mentioned on January 15, 2026.

Tech firm sues Education Ministry over alleged software copyright breach

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