By GPC Correspondent
A parliamentary watchdog committee has raised questions over millions of shillings paid by public secondary schools to the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KSSHA).
The National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education warned that public funds could be channelled to a private members’ organisation without adequate public scrutiny.
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Chaired by Luanda MP Dick Maungu, the team said its examination of Auditor-General’s reports for national schools had revealed substantial payments to KSSHA over the five financial years under review.
Maungu said one of the schools examined had paid about Sh6 million to the association, while another had remitted approximately Sh5 million.
“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.
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’s reports covering the 2020/21 to 2024/25 financial years for a number of national schools in the Nyanza and Western regions.
The schools whose principals and senior management appeared before the committee at the Royal Swiss Hotel in Kisumu on Thursday 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.
Schools defend payments
Maseno School principal Peter Owino Otieno told the committee that the payments were made in good faith and were intended to facilitate students’ participation in co-curricular activities.
He said schools were required to pay annual subscriptions to KSSHA because failure to do so could lock students out of regional and national competitions in sports, drama and music.
“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 said.
He added: “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.”
Owino, however, acknowledged that the method of making the payments raised concerns and said a policy intervention was needed to regularise the arrangement.
“The permanent regularisation of this payment channel requires policy intervention from higher authorities,” he said.
The principal said the association’s activities went beyond matters concerning its members and included programmes benefiting students and schools.
But 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 schools and the 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,” Mangale said.
Kiminini MP Maurice 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,” Bisau said.
He urged the committee to establish who owns and controls the association and the basis upon which public schools remit money to it.
“This is something we need to interrogate because we cannot continue seeing funds being sent to an organisation without proper control and accountability,” he said.
Officials summoned
Maungu said the committee would summon KSSHA officials to explain how the 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,” he said.
The committee chairman said the issue had persisted for years, partly because Parliament previously had a huge workload in examining public institutions.
He said the splitting of the former Public Investments Committee into three specialised committees had enabled Parliament to undertake more detailed scrutiny of public institutions.
“We are proud as a Parliament that we have been able to look at the Auditor-General’s reports to the present. Right now, we are looking at 2025/26, meaning we are now current,” Maungu said.
He said the committee would pursue the matter with KSSHA leadership and relevant Government agencies.
Beyond KSSHA payments, the committee identified weaknesses in financial management and accounting systems in some of the schools.
Maungu said some schools were struggling to transition from the systems previously used under school audits to the requirements of the current public financial management framework.
He said some school managers had yet to fully embrace Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), which are required in public institutions.
“The shift from the school audit system, where they used to operate using different systems, to the new systems has been a challenge,” he said.
He added that school managers and bursars needed to be empowered and trained to ensure compliance with financial management requirements.
“Some of these schools are not shifting to Public Sector Accounting Standards. We need to know why, and they need to be empowered so that they can be able to do the right thing,” Maungu said.
Despite the shortcomings, he said the committee was impressed by the general performance of the schools and the efforts of their management teams.
“By and large, what we have seen is impressive,” he said.
Bunyore Girls High School Chief Principal Judith Agade told the committee that some of the funds queried by auditors had been used to support students’ activities as well as training for deputy principals, bursars and teachers through workshops.
She said the expenditure was aimed at improving the capacity of school staff and supporting learners.
