Ghost schools scandal: 87,000 phantom learners on the books

Education CS Julius Migos addresses the Press after visiting teachers admitted to Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, on February 1, 2026. [Collins Oduor, Standard] It has now emerged that at least 87,000 ghost learners were embedded in official education records even as dozens of public schools with no learners continued to appear as operational, exposing deep systemic failures in enrolment data management and raising fresh concerns over the integrity of government capitation. Damning details have now emerged showing that 26 public primary and secondary schools were listed as operational despite having no learners, laying bare the extent of ghost schools embedded in official education records and raising serious questions about whether taxpayers may have continued funding institutions that had effectively ceased to exist. The revelations are contained in the National School Data Verification Report set to be released today following a nationwide enrolment verification exercise conducted between September and October 2025. The verification exercise also uncovered widespread enrolment distortions, including at least 87,000 ghost learners captured in the system without corresponding physical presence in schools, contributing to inflated figures used in planning and funding decisions. Overall enrolment declared before verification stood at 11,616,457 learners but dropped to 11,068,820 after physical verification, leaving 547,637 learners unaccounted for. The Ministry says the discrepancy points to ghost learners and outdated records. In primary schools, enrolment listed in NEMIS for capitation stood at 5,833,175 learners, but physical verification confirmed only 4,817,694 learners, a net reduction of 961,481 learners or 16.5 per cent. The report links this gap to unauthenticated learner records, missing Unique Personal Identifiers, duplicated or invalid assessment numbers, failure to update learner transfers and dropouts, and the exclusion of lower-grade learners lacking birth certificates required for system registration. The report explains that many Grade 7 learners had not been included in earlier capitation lists due to delays in synchronising Kenya National Examinations Council assessment numbers with NEMIS, meaning learners were physically present but invisible in funding data. At the secondary school level, enrolment fell from 3,352,884 learners recorded in NEMIS to 3,259,650 verified learners, a reduction of 93,234 learners or 2.64 per cent. Interestingly, however, the number of students in junior schools grew after the verification. While 2,430,398 learners had been captured in the previous NEMIS capitation list, verification confirmed 2,948,929 learners, representing an increase of 518,531 learners or 21.3 per cent. The report establishes that 10 secondary schools and 16 primary schools were non-operational, yet remained captured in the NEMIS, the platform used to compute government capitation. The schools carried 974 learners on paper, even though verification teams confirmed that no learners were physically present in the institutions. The Ministry attributes the closures to insecurity, prolonged lack of learners, conflict, administrative decisions, relocation of communities and public health orders but concedes that the schools were not flagged or removed from the system in a timely manner. But that is not all. The report reveals deeply concerning delays in reporting school closures, with some institutions remaining listed as active for years after shutting down. Nguchu Primary School in Murang'a, for instance, closed in January 2023 due to lack of learners, but was only reported as non-operational in November 2025.

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