Education CS Machogu has come out to clear the air after ODM leader Raila Odinga claimed that the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) awarded a tender to a local company to print the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Examinations (KCPE).
He also called out Odinga, adding that printing, coding and transportation tenders are awarded annually, and Kenya can also print its own papers.
”We have not terminated anybody’s contract. Each and every year a contract is made,” he explained.
Despite refuting Raila's allegations claiming that a tender awarded to a UK company was cancelled in favour of the Kenyan one based along Mombasa Road, he admitted that the release of the exams was marred by minor errors.
While appearing before the Education Committee in Parliament on Thursday, the CS attributed the errors to a company that was contracted to manage the QR code used for relaying results.
“As a CS, I have learnt lessons because basically you can see as a ministry, everything was right. Somebody we can call an outsider was given the contract but did not really conform and do to the required standard. Moving forward, when we release the KCSE examinations, we will not be able to make use of the same service provider,” Machogu stated.
However, he still maintained that the results were factual, stating, "The Ministry did not rush the release of the 2023 KCPE results. We undertook due diligence in marking, verification, and validation before releasing the exam and releasing the results."
He further clarified that even though KNEC incorporated quality control in all exam stages, this being the last year of the examinations, some errors occurred out of control and were addressed immediately after the release of the results.
With the help of the Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) ministry, the authority consulted for a forensic audit of 2023 KCPE results after 1,043 complaints were lodged, and thus 871 have been resolved so far.
Meanwhile, on issues of some students receiving exam results for papers they did not sit, Machogu attributed it to the manual feeding of the marks into the system since the authority allowed unregistered candidates to take this year's papers.
In his defence, KNEC witnessed an overall improvement in curbing examination leakages compared to the previous years, and the exams' security codes were not cracked, as alleged by ODM leader Raila Odinga.
"There were challenges in transportation and packaging of the papers as the system was not secured due to social media and advanced technology," PS Belio Kipsang, who accompanied the CS, clarified to the committee.
