MPs grill former Homa Bay High principal over Sh184m school debt

A former principal of Homa Bay High School has been questioned by MPs over Sh184 million in liabilities accumulated during his tenure, as well as millions of shillings in outstanding imprest.

Vincent Omondi Mayienga, who was transferred to Sirembe Mixed Day Secondary School in Siaya County in May, appeared before the National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education.

The committee, chaired by Luanda MP Dick Maungu, was examining Auditor-General reports on the national school when MPs raised concerns about its growing debts, budget implementation and management of imprest.

Mayienga said he was uncomfortable leaving the school with such a large liability.

“I don’t feel good,” he told the committee when asked how he felt about leaving behind Sh184m in liabilities.

He attributed the financial pressure partly to a gap between the amount schools are expected to budget for and the government capitation they actually receive.

Acording to Mayienga, schools are required to budget Sh22,244 per learner, while government funding had averaged about Sh15,000 per learner over the previous seven years.

“So definitely, you realise that if the capitation is not done fully, then we are going to have a financial gap,” he said.

He also blamed low fee collection, saying parents were not paying the full amount expected.

School fees are capped at Sh40,000 per learner, but actual collections averaged about 60% of that amount, he said.

“That gives us another shortfall in terms of our operations,” Mayienga said. But Maungu rejected the explanation, saying public institutions should only spend money they have.

“Please, I want to stop you there and draw you to the pronouncements of the Public Finance Management Act. It says you spend what you have, not what you’ve budgeted for,” he said.

The chairman questioned how the school had continued spending despite receiving less funding than it had budgeted for.

“The meaning is that you’ve left a huge bill to the school. The school is almost technically insolvent,” he said.

He also questioned whether Mayienga had demonstrated adequate governance and accountability during his tenure.

“Do you think you are a good champion of governance, really, and accountability?” Maungu asked.

The committee was particularly concerned about outstanding imprest at the school.

The Auditor-General’s report for the year ended 30 June 2025 showed that Homa Bay High School had account receivables of Sh71.68m, including an imprest balance of Sh23.06 million.

By the time of the audit in March 2026, Sh19.07million remained outstanding.

The Auditor-General said the failure to surrender the imprest breached Regulation 93(5) of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations, 2015.

The regulation requires temporary imprest to be accounted for or surrendered within seven working days of an officer returning to their duty station.

The school also failed to provide imprest warrants and an imprest register covering all imprests issued and surrendered, according to the audit.

Previous audits had raised similar concerns. The school reported an outstanding imprest balance of Sh19.08million for the year ended June 2024, while the figure was Sh12.36million in the 2023 audit report and Sh7.78million in 2021.

MPs wanted to know why the amounts had remained outstanding and whether those responsible had been held personally accountable.

Kiminini MP Kakai Bissau said officers accused of poor financial management should not simply be transferred to other institutions.

“I think, as this committee, we have a responsibility to ensure that we don’t just support movement of incompetency from one institution to the other,” he said.

He questioned how similar financial concerns could have persisted for years while the principal remained in office.

“You cannot do it nine years consecutively,” Bissau said, describing the situation as “sheer incompetence. We can’t run our institutions like this,” he added.

Central MP Moses Kirima also criticised attempts to explain the financial problems through rising food prices while millions of shillings in imprest remained unaccounted for.

“What does a bag of maize got to do with imprest of Sh23 million? What are you telling us?” he asked.

“If you’re incompetent, you’re incompetent. If you are not fit to hold public office, you are unfit to hold public office. Address the real issues,” Kirima said.

Sigei said the committee should pursue those responsible for unaccounted funds. “I think as a committee we must commit ourselves to pin down whoever was involved in this money,” he said.

Mayienga defended the school’s financial decisions, citing inflation and rising food prices as challenges that had affected its budgets.

He gave the example of maize, saying its price could more than double during the financial year after the school had prepared its budget.

“A bag of maize, for example, at the start of the budget period is costed at Sh3,600. At the end of or during the year, a bag of maize will cost Sh8,000, and you have to be able to continue to run the school,” he said.

But Kirima said this did not explain the outstanding imprest.
Narok Woman Representative Rebecca Tonkei said principals with unresolved financial liabilities should not simply be moved to other schools.

“Such principals should not be transferred from one institution to another because, in the first place, how could he leave a liability in another institution and go to another institution?” she asked.

She also questioned why a new principal should inherit debts accumulated by a previous administration.

Tonkei reminded the school’s board that it had powers to act against staff who failed to account for public funds.

“Chair, they have powers as the board to advise TSC. It is the board that interdicts teachers,” she said.

The school’s current principal, Joshua Miyawa, told the committee that measures had been introduced to recover outstanding imprest.

He said the board had agreed that officers with outstanding imprest would not be authorised to undertake further official assignments until they had cleared previous amounts.

“One step is that we sat as a board and agreed that if any officer is released on official function and has imprest arrears, we don’t give you another chance to move out,” Miyawa said.

He said teaching and support staff with outstanding imprest were also subject to recovery measures.

Miyawa told MPs that Mayienga was not among those with outstanding imprest, having cleared his account before leaving the school.

Homa Bay High School board chairman Macotieno Silas said the board was concerned about the school’s growing debts and was working with the administration to address them.

“We are equally worried about the ballooning debts. We are dealing with it as a board. We are not sitting pretty, knowing that this is debt that we need to clear,” he said.

The MPs order recovery of outstanding funds. The committee directed the school to submit, within two weeks, a comprehensive list of all officers with outstanding imprest and a plan for recovering the money.

Maungu said officers who had left the school while still holding imprest should be pursued through their employers.

He said the committee would engage the Teachers Service Commission where necessary to recover money owed to the school, including through deductions from the salaries of teachers who had failed to account for the funds.

“If an imprest is outstanding long beyond the due date, it needs to be recovered from the person’s personal emoluments from TSC,” he said.

The chairman reminded the school that temporary imprest must be surrendered within seven working days of an officer returning to their duty station.

Lunga Lunga MP Chiforomodo Mangale urged the committee to clearly assign responsibility for the financial problems and ensure the imprest issue was reflected prominently in its report.

Bomachoge Chache MP Alpha Miruka also questioned the systems used to ensure that imprest was recovered on time.

Maungu said the committee would conduct a deeper examination of the school’s debt-management strategy and financial controls.

“I want to seek deeper inquiry into the financial management of Homa Bay High School,” he said.

He said MPs could consider visiting the school to examine its records and establish how its finances had been managed.

However, Maungu urged members to exercise some restraint because the school was appearing before the committee for the first time in the current audit exercise.

“This is the first time the school is facing such an audit, and therefore we kind of be a bit lenient with them for their first encounter here,” he said.

“But leniency does not extend to the issue of recovery of imprests.”

The chairman said MPs were concerned that the financial problems could damage the reputation of Homa Bay High School, which he described as a prestigious institution of national significance.

“How do I table a report in Parliament that Homa Bay High School is a prestigious school of national significance, yet it is entangled in things that should not be?” he asked.

The school was directed to provide the committee with details of all outstanding imprest, its debt-recovery plan and measures being implemented to strengthen its financial controls.