Gatoto Primary School: High Court Summons KNEC CEO Over Exam Registration for 300 Pupils.
The High Court has ordered Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) Chief Executive Officer Dr David Njengere to appear in person on September 29, 2026, after learning that roughly 300 Grade 6 and Grade 9 learners at Gatoto Primary School in Nairobi’s Mukuru kwa Reuben area risk missing their national assessments.
Justice Gregory Mutai issued the summons on September 23 at the Milimani Law Courts, also directing former Gatoto headteacher Margaret Kimani to appear and surrender learner records still in her possession. The order is the latest turn in a long-running fight over who owns and runs the school — a dispute that has now collided directly with the exam calendar.
Why This Matters Right Now
Registration for the 2026 Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) closed months ago, and subject-selection windows are already shut. For most candidates nationwide, that process is behind them.
For Gatoto’s Grade 6 and Grade 9 learners, it isn’t — because the dispute over the school’s legal status has left many of them without the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) numbers KNEC requires to register a candidate.
Lawyer Danstan Omari, representing the school’s board, told the court that of the roughly 300 affected candidates, about half had managed to register and select their subjects before the window closed. The remainder had not completed the process at all.
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What’s Actually Blocking Registration
The core problem is administrative, not academic. Regional Director of Education Reuben Kipturgo explained to the court that NEMIS numbers are assigned to an individual learner, not to a school, and cannot simply be reissued or transferred when a school’s status changes.
When Gatoto’s classification shifted amid the ownership dispute, some pupils’ NEMIS records became effectively stranded — not lost, but not accessible in a way that let the school complete registration in time.
Compounding this, the court heard that Kimani, who served as headteacher during part of the transition, had been issued learner records that were never handed back. Justice Mutai ordered her to surrender them so registration can proceed.
The Bigger Dispute Behind the Exam Crisis
To understand why 300 children are caught in this, it helps to know the school’s history.
Gatoto Community Primary School was founded in 1994 by the Gatoto Integrated Development Programme (GIDP), a community organisation established by the late Betty Nyagoha, in Mukuru kwa Reuben — one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlements.
For three decades it operated as a non-profit Alternative Provision of Basic Education and Training (APBET) institution, relying on donor and community support rather than direct government ownership, though it has also received government capitation and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) staff over the years.
The dispute traces back to October 2024, when the school was registered as a public institution — a move GIDP and community members say was done without proper authority. That registration was challenged in court, and in June 2025 Justice Bahati Mwamuye ruled the public registration unlawful, quashing the October 2024 certificate and ordering the Ministry of Education to re-register Gatoto as a private APBET school.
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Implementation stalled for months amid resistance on the ground, including reports of blocked access to the school premises. The matter returned before Justice Mutai, who on June 25, 2026, again directed the Principal Secretary for Basic Education and the County Education Board to register the school as private and non-profit, and ordered that its management be formally restored to the GIDP-linked petitioners on July 2, 2026, with police security during the handover.
That handover has not been straightforward either. Some residents and Embakasi South MP Julius Mawathe have publicly opposed the shift to private status, arguing the school benefits from government capitation and TSC-deployed teachers and should stay public.
In July 2026, Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja and Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat were themselves summoned to court over delays in implementing the earlier handover orders.
The dispute is not yet fully settled. The underlying question of whether Gatoto should remain public or revert to private, community-run status is now before the Court of Appeal, with a ruling expected on October 9, 2026 — eleven days after the KNEC CEO is due in court over the exam registration crisis. In other words, the ownership question and the exam-registration question are moving on separate but overlapping tracks, and Justice Mutai has made clear he wants the exam issue resolved on its own urgent timeline rather than waiting for the wider case to conclude.
What the Court Has Prioritised
Justice Mutai was explicit that his immediate concern is getting affected candidates into an exam room, not resolving every strand of the ownership dispute. Two practical options were raised during the hearing:
- KNEC-facilitated registration at Gatoto itself, using whatever records can be recovered and verified in time.
- Registering the affected candidates through a neighbouring school, with arrangements already discussed for a nearby secondary school to host the sittings. Legal representatives for that school cautioned that the arrangement would still need to be confirmed as workable in practice.
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Njengere’s appearance on September 29 is expected to clarify which of these routes KNEC will take, and how quickly it can be executed given that Third Term is already underway.
2026 KPSEA and KJSEA Exam Timetable: Where Things Stand Nationally
For context, KNEC’s published 2026 timetable has the written KPSEA and KJSEA assessments beginning in the last week of October, with rehearsals held beforehand and the assessments running over several days. Schools nationwide were required to verify School-Based Assessment (SBA) scores on the CBA portal by July 30, 2026, since SBA marks contribute a significant share of each learner’s final grade alongside the national paper.
This matters for Gatoto specifically because SBA scores are tied to a learner’s NEMIS record. A learner without a confirmed NEMIS number cannot have SBA data properly verified or matched to a national assessment entry — which is precisely the technical bottleneck the court is now trying to clear before the October assessment dates arrive.
Parents and teachers with children awaiting KPSEA or KJSEA registration elsewhere should confirm exact subject-specific dates directly through their school or KNEC’s official communication, since minor scheduling details can be revised close to the assessment period.
Quick Reference: Key Dates in the Gatoto Case
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1994 | Gatoto Community Primary School founded by GIDP in Mukuru kwa Reuben |
| October 2024 | School registered as a public institution, later disputed |
| June 2025 | Justice Bahati Mwamuye quashes public registration, orders re-registration as private APBET |
| June 25, 2026 | Justice Mutai again orders registration as private non-profit APBET |
| July 2, 2026 | Court-ordered handover of school management to petitioners |
| July 24, 2026 | IG Douglas Kanja appears in court over delayed implementation |
| September 23, 2026 | Justice Mutai summons KNEC CEO and former headteacher over exam registration for ~300 pupils |
| September 29, 2026 | KNEC CEO Dr David Njengere and Margaret Kimani due in court |
| October 9, 2026 | Court of Appeal expected to rule on the school’s public/private status |
| Late October 2026 | KPSEA and KJSEA written national assessments |
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What Parents and Teachers Should Do Now
If you are a parent, guardian or teacher connected to Gatoto Primary School:
- Keep any existing NEMIS numbers, admission letters or KNEC correspondence for affected learners — these will likely be needed to speed up verification.
- Watch for communication from the school administration and KNEC following the September 29 hearing, since the registration route (in-school or via a neighbouring institution) will be decided then.
- If a learner has already registered and selected subjects, there is no indication their status is at risk — the current court process concerns the roughly half of candidates who have not yet completed registration.
- For general NEMIS or KPSEA/KJSEA registration questions unrelated to this case, the relevant Sub-County Director of Education’s office or KNEC’s CBA portal helpdesk remains the correct first point of contact.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can’t NEMIS numbers simply be transferred to a new school?
NEMIS numbers are tied to the individual learner within the system, not to the institution. When a school’s registration status changes, the number itself doesn’t move automatically — it has to be verified and reconciled against the learner’s current school record, which is the administrative gap affecting Gatoto’s candidates.
Will the 300 pupils definitely sit their exams?
The court has made clear that ensuring these candidates sit their assessments is the immediate priority, and options for doing so — either at Gatoto or a neighbouring school — are already on the table. The September 29 hearing is expected to confirm the specific arrangement.
Is Gatoto Primary School now public or private?
Under the current High Court orders, it has been directed to operate as a private, non-profit APBET institution. However, this status is being contested at the Court of Appeal, with a decision expected October 9, 2026, so the position could change again.
Does this affect other schools or candidates?
No. This is specific to Gatoto Primary School and stems directly from its unresolved ownership status. Other candidates’ KPSEA and KJSEA registration is unaffected.
Gatoto Primary School: High Court Summons KNEC CEO Over Exam Registration for 300 Pupils.
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