On the second day of the ongoing 2021 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam, a number of students were found with large amounts of money which shocked officials.
Speaking to the press, Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha disclosed that exam invigilators were finding students with huge sums of money a situation which worried Education stakeholders.
Prof Magoha stated that on Tuesday, March 15, they had recovered huge sums of money while frisking learners who were to sit for their second-day exams.
"While we are frisking our students before they go to their classrooms let us ensure that they don't have large amounts of money in their pockets," Prof Magoha stated.
"We were able to track some students who had unnecessary large amounts of money in their pockets for reasons which were best known to them," he added.
The CS stated that any money found with students should be kept and returned to them only at the end of the national test. He further directed centre managers who will be found with "unreasonable amounts of money" to be arrested immediately.
"I'm going to instruct the centre managers together with the supervisors and the invigilators that they should frisk the children very gently and any unreasonable amount of money found on them must be taken and kept in the centre manager's office until after the examination is complete and the student is going home," he remarked.
"I also ask the police to watch and check the centre managers who carry hundreds of thousands of shillings during the examination process. That should actually handcuff such teachers immediately."
The integrity of the exam was put to test as candidates sat for their first paper after police arrested a 20-year-old university student over suspected impersonation.
The said student was sitting in English Paper 1 for a private student at Kiamabundu Mixed Secondary School near Kisii town.
In Busia County, police arrested a twenty-six-year-old man for sitting the examination on behalf of his father.
In February 2022, Prof Magoha, cautioned learners against a new form of exams cheating involving officials from the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC).
He was speaking during inspection of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) classes, where he stated that some examination officials were buying candidates' data promising schools good results.
He stated that his Ministry had noticed a growing trend, where cheats are turning to new ways of beating the system by engaging in malpractices further cautioning students and parents.
"We want to warn principals, especially those who want to give certain people index numbers of their children in the hope of getting fake examination results. They should stop wasting their time.
