Stop school funds rip-off

The transfer of Sh6 billion in public funds to a school heads’ welfare association is quite rightly raising eyebrows. It is particularly disturbing to note that the money was sent to the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) despite there being no legal instrument authorising the payments.

While head teachers are pivotal in the management of these institutions, the funds allocated by the government should be mainly for the benefit of the learners.

The principals say it is the Ministry of Education’s failure to fund co-curricular activities that has seen Kessha partner with the schools to ensure that sports, music and other activities are held. But some of the money has been used to settle Kessha membership fees and also pay for an annual conference of the school heads.

Indeed, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu and MPs have questioned why a private entity has been able to receive public funds without any official authorisation and accountability safeguards. This is a welfare organisation of the school heads, which is not defined in the government funding system. Ms Gathungu has confirmed that schools paid the annual subscription fees to Kessha using public funds.

There can be no better evidence of misuse of public funds than this. As auditors have explained, the association’s membership fees should be paid by individual head teachers from their own salaries, and not from the school accounts.

Parliament should go ahead and summon the Kessha leaders to explain how they received and spent the taxpayers’ money. Though a long-running irregularity, this should be done to prevent a repeat of such illegal deals. Public funds must be safeguarded at all times.

The National Assembly’s Investments Committee, which is investigating the irregular transfer of public funds to the school heads association, should speed up the inquiry so that it can be stopped and the culprits sanctioned.

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