Government replaces NEMIS with KEMIS

The Ministry of Education has launched a new computerized system dubbed the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS) to replace the current National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) and help deliver greater accuracy, accountability, and real-time access to information on students at all levels of study.

The enhanced platform will allow parents, teachers, and education officials to track students’ learning, funding, and registration status — from nursery school to university — through a new Elimu App to be rolled out by July 1, 2025.

Basic Education Principal Secretary Prof. Julius Bitok said the system, which was designed in partnership with Konza Technopolis, is a shift from the previous NEMIS 3.0 system to a new 4.0 version capable of aggregating data from early childhood centres, TVETs, primary and secondary schools, and universities.

“Parents will receive their children’s report cards on their mobile phones just like M-PESA.KEMIS will give instant visibility of learner information, resource planning, and policy planning,” Bitok said.

The upgrade is coming after longstanding complaints by school administrators and principals over the inefficiencies of NEMIS, particularly in accurately capturing students’ enrollment data for government capitation and exam registration.

The roll-out has been universally welcomed by education unions and members of parliament.

Collins Oyuu, KNUT Secretary General labeled KEMIS a “new dawn” and said it would address longstanding funding gaps caused by misleading information under NEMIS.

Faud Ali, KEPSHA Chairman also said that school managers had “long suffered” under NEMIS but were optimistic that KEMIS would simplify school management through assured data convergence.

National Assembly Education Committee Chair Julius Melly clarified that lawmakers were involved at an early stage in the rollout to hasten legislation pegging KEMIS on the Basic Education Act

He further noted the system would ease the implementation of Kenya’s new model of funding, specifically for higher education.

The Ministry states that all learners will be newly registered on the new KEMIS platform as of July 15, 2025, to ensure integrity of baseline data in the future.

KEMIS will also serve as a centralized data warehouse for policy formulation, budgeting, examination management, and resource allocation — an aspiration recommended by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform in 2023.

The data infrastructure will be located at Konza Technopolis, whose high-capacity data center can support national education records securely.

Although the cost of the system is not disclosed, authorities confirmed that it is being rolled out as a government-to-government initiative through Konza.