Parents at St Annes Academy in Kajulu, Kisumu County were thrown into anxiety as 14 candidates supposed to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) went missing.
According to The Standard on Thursday, October 31 the parents failed to trace the pupils as they faulted the headteacher, who was arrested and later released, for the incident.
Forty-six pupils were expected to show up for the exams but 26 failed to appear as reports from the school claimed they had been transferred to different schools.
The 20 Standard Eight pupils who showed up were the top candidates which the school had allegedly registered for the National exams.
The rest were allegedly taken to Karunga Primary School in Muhoroni apparently due to their poor performance with parents tracing only 12 pupils from the 26.
The remaining 14 candidates whereabouts remained a mystery as their parents accused the Ministry of Education of not taking the matter seriously.
One of the parents identified as Joseph Otieno revealed that he could not trace his child despite the effort he had made to record a statement with the education officials.
"When word came around that our children were at Karunga there was a bit of calm. But after it emerged that only 12 were there, more questions came up on the whereabouts of the rest," Otieno disclosed.
Isaak Atebe, the County Director of Education, divulged that headteachers from both St Annes and Karunga Primary schools had been relieved of their duties to allow for investigations into the matter.
"We may not go deep into the issue as it is being handled at another level. But what I can confirm to you is that the exams in both schools have to go on, and we had to replace the centre managers and handover the suspects to the police," Atebe affirmed.
County Police Commander Benson Maweu also confirmed the incident and explained why the headteacher had been released.
"From the allegations reported, which included registering candidates in a different school, we cannot do much looking into the provisions of the Penal Code. We have, however, taken his statements, and we are still on with our investigations, meaning the case is not closed yet," Maweu narrated.
