The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) theory Examinations kicked off on Monday morning with the County of Meru reporting three crucial incidents that have impacted the candidates set to sit for their final examinations.
As the day dawned at around 12 am on November 4, a male candidate registered in a Tigania West school passed just hours to sitting the exam while two girls, also candidates, who had been expecting leading up to the examination delivered at a Meru Hospital.
“At around 12.00 AM this morning, we lost one male candidate who hails from Tigania West. At around the same time, we had two girls who were expectant and delivered at the Meru Hospital. I know this news will keep changing because maybe the number has increased but we will continue letting you know as we receive the information,” a regional administrator in the region, confirmed.
While addressing the media during the distribution of the examinations in Meru County, he also noted that despite the tragic death and the deliveries, they had also reported a significant number of adult candidates and prisoner candidates.
The region reported a total number of 151 senior adults sitting for the same exams in 5 centres as well as 12 male prisoners.
Echoing the Ministry of Education’s plea, the administrator also urged adults mandated with overseeing the examination exercise to adhere to the rules in place to curb irregularities and exam malpractices as well.
“All the officials involved, centre managers, supervisors, invigilators, police officers and everyone else involved in this exercise, you’ve been given directives on your roles so anyone who will be involved in one way or another in exam malpractice will be arrested and dealt with by law,” he said.
He urged them to let the candidates reap their results as they have been preparing for years to get to that point.
Meanwhile, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba directed supervisors to shy away from aiding in malpractice, indicating that the government would be on the watch and would not desist from cracking down on perpetrators.
He further stated that the examination papers in this year’s exam had been fitted with technology to detect whether they had been tampered with and immediately relay the information to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) headquarters in Nairobi.
Currently, school officials have also been banned from bringing phones to the examination centres. The Ministry revealed that it will utilise social media to flag any suspicious activity pertaining to the ongoing exams and act immediately.
Once caught, the perpetrators will be prosecuted in newly constitutioned courts that have been put in place to ensure that exam malpractice cases are promptly addressed.
