Members of Parliament have warned secondary school heads against using public funds to pay subscriptions to private entities, saying the practice could amount to the misuse of resources meant to support learners.
The lawmakers are also planning to summon the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KSSHA) to explain illegal subscriptions by public schools.
The National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education wants KSSHA officials to appear before it to explain how money received from public schools was used, and under what legal framework the association operated.
“We want to know why a private members’ club should enjoy public money, yet its operations cannot be publicly scrutinised like those of a public institution,” committee chairman and Luanda MP Dick Maungu said.
The team raised concern that several schools were spending millions of shillings on payments to KSSHA, a private entity representing principals.
MP Maungu said the committee had established some schools were paying as much as Sh6 million to the association, raising questions about the legality and accountability of the expenditure.
“If you convert them into all the schools in the country, there are billions going to KSSHA, and we want to find out whether KSSHA is a recipient of public money,” Maungu said.
The MP spoke after the committee met a number of secondary school heads from the Nyanza region, where concerns were raised over the financial obligations imposed on schools through various associations and activities. The illegality, he said, is rampant in secondary schools across the country.
Maungu said the committee's examination of auditor general reports for national schools had revealed substantial payments to KSSHA over the five financial years under review.
He questioned how an organisation that is not a government entity could receive public funds without being subjected to the same level of scrutiny as public institutions.
“KSSHA is a private members’ organisation. The activities they are doing may be good and necessary, but the contributions are public funds. If it is public money, it must be accounted for,” he said.
The committee is examining auditor general reports covering the 2020-21 to 2024-25 financial years for a number of national schools in Nyanza and Western.
Schools that appeared before the committee included Ng’iya Girls' High School, Maseno School, Bunyore Girls' High School, Chavakali Boys' High School, Maranda High School and Kisumu Girls' High School. The KSSHA payments were among the audit queries confronting the schools.
Maseno School principal Peter Owino told the committee the payments were made in good faith and were intended to facilitate students’ participation in co-curricular activities.
“Management fully accepts the auditor’s observation regarding the transfers made to KSSHA. These transfers were made in good faith, strictly to facilitate students’ co-curricular and extracurricular activities,” Owino told the committee.
“Without paying them, the institution’s students are completely locked out and disallowed from participating in sports, drama, music, or other regional and national talent competitions.”
He explained that the association’s activities went beyond matters concerning its members and involved programmes benefiting students and schools.
However, the committee insisted that the legality and accountability of the payments had to be established.
Lungalunga MP Chiforomodo Mangale said the starting point was to determine the legal status of KSSHA and its relationship with the schools and government.
“We must start from the point of understanding how these funds are transferred to KSSHA. KSSHA is an organisation for teachers who head schools and there was no clear indication that it is a government entity,” MP Mangale said.
Kiminini MP Kakai Bisau described KSSHA as a private club whose membership is drawn from school heads.
“KSSHA remains a private club, a private organisation managed by principals in the teaching fraternity. In the absence of it being formalised, we still look at it as a private members’ organisation,” he said.
Instant Analysis
MP Maungu warned principals against committing public funds to unauthorised payments, saying those found to have misused school resources could be held personally accountable.
