Detectives are probing the circumstances under which keys to a container with the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations went missing.
Education director Harrison Muriuki confirmed that sleuths from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations are probing how a senior official misplaced a key for an examination container, causing delays in the distribution of KCSE papers to 23 schools.
Ainakboi deputy county commissioner was guarding the key to the container but in the morning the education official could not find it. By 6 am the exams had not been handed over to the relevant officials.
Examination centre managers, education and security officers who were at the exam collection centre in Kapsoya were forced to wait as officials organized how the container would be opened.
Education officials had to break open the container and distribute the exams. DCI is investigating whether the padlock was tampered with.
“We forcefully opened the padlock after getting permission from the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC). At 6.30 am, the papers were distributed to the schools. The DCI took the padlock as we wait for its replacement. Police are manning the container at the moment," Education director Harrison Muriuki stated.
National examinations are stored in containers that are opened on the morning of the specific papers that the candidates will be sitting. The keys to each container are usually in the custody of the area sub-county director of education and the sub-county deputy commissioner.
The education officials are mandated to be present during the opening of the containers that are under 24-hour surveillance.
The 2021 KCSE examinations commenced on Monday amid isolated cases of examination malpractice in at least 6 centres across the country.
Police in Matayos, Busia County were perturbed by a 26-year-old man George Barasa, who attempted to sit the English Paper one on behalf of his father, 42-year-old Josephat Barasa at the Our Lady of Mercy Girls Secondary School.
On Tuesday, a police officer tasked with manning an exam centre was arrested after he fled. The officer, a police constable went missing from his station at Koiban Secondary School at about 2.00p.m to conduct an illegal raid in the Kimngoror area of Nandi County.
The officer stationed at Kamungei Police Post allegedly went to a homestead one kilometre away to carry out an operation targeting illicit liquor brewers.
