Azimio leader Raila Odinga on Wednesday exposed a blunder by President William Ruto's administration that led to the massive anomalies witnessed in the release of the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results.
In a press briefing, Raila noted that Ruto's administration cancelled the contract given to a United Kingdom-based firm that was initially responsible for the printing of exams.
In its place, Raila claimed that the government awarded the tender to a Mombasa- Road based firm.
Raila alleged that the reason for cancelling the contract was that the UK firm declined to give bribes to the government.
"We've established that early this year the government abruptly stopped this contract because the UK company refused to give kickbacks. Without following any legal process, the KK awarded the KCPE contract to a politically connected local company based in Mombasa Road in Nairobi."
"The government was advised that the local company could not print the exams and ensure its security, especially on short notice. Nobody would budge because there were kickbacks involved."
The Azimio leader claimed that the Mombasa-Road-based firm was forced to outsource from a company based in India for the exam papers to be printed in a hurry to meet the deadlines.
"We are also aware that the UK firm declined to provide codes to the many layers of security that had been encrypted to safeguard the integrity of national exams. We believe this process is responsible for the disaster witnessed in the KCPE results," Raila pointed out.
Raila also explained that the contract for relaying results to the public was awarded to another company on short notice, hence jeopardising the entire process.
He noted that the local company lacked the capacity to provide the services and hence caused the delay and errors witnessed after the release of the exams.
"Grades in science, social studies, and religious studies were truncated. The rollout saw KCPE candidates get graded in subjects they never sat for. The system deployed could not produce the plus and minus signs; what a shame," he remarked.
Following the expose, Raila stated that he had written to all stakeholders including the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Teachers Unions and Religious Organisations to safeguard the integrity of the national examinations.
