Fraud in Kenyan education sector

15 December 2009

The UK is extremely concerned by allegations of fraud in the Kenyan education sector, uncovered by a recent Ministry of Finance internal audit investigation.  There appears to be conclusive evidence of the misappropriation of both Government and donor funds totalling over Kshs 100 million from the month of June 2009.  We welcome the Government’s investigations into this matter and await the final report that should be released imminently. 

“From our perspective and from our taxpayers’ perspective, this is money that we thought was going to be used to improve education for kids; more text books, better classrooms, better teaching.” said Alistair Fernie, Head of DFID Kenya & Somalia, at the launch of a UK publication on corruption on Friday 11 December.  “Instead some of it has been stolen by people who organised fraudulent workshops that never happened, manufactured receipts, walked off with the money and did so reasonably confident, they thought, that they wouldn't get caught” he added.

The UK, through the Department for International Development (DFID), has been supporting the Kenya Education Sector Support Programme (KESSP) since 2005.  DFID has committed £55 million (~ 7 billion Kshs) to the programme from 2005 - 2010.  During this time there has been some excellent progress.  There are now 1 million more children in primary school than at the start of the programme; progression to secondary school has increased dramatically from 56% to 68%; and the introduction of direct grants for classrooms and textbooks has made schools more accountable to the communities they serve.  However in order to establish a functioning educational system it is important to not only improve education services but also to strengthen the systems that deliver and manage them.   

“The UK is committed to helping all Kenyan children have access to a quality education.  However, how we provide funds to the education sector in future depends on the action taken by the Ministry of Education on this matter.  DFID does not tolerate fraud in its programmes.” said Alistair Fernie, Head of DFID Kenya & Somalia.

DFID support for the second phase of KESSP, which is due to start in July next year, will depend on progress made by the Ministry of Education to implement the recommendations of the internal audit report.  This must include the prosecution of those individuals involved in fraud, replacement of lost funds, and improvement of financial management systems.

No UK funds have been transferred to the Ministry of Education since the fraud came to light in September 2009.  DFID had plans to disburse two further payments totalling £10 million (Kshs 1.2 billion) but release of these funds depends on the Government’s response to the audit report.