Police in Nandi county are holding four Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination officials over suspected involvement in malpractices.

Kamimei Mixed Secondary School centre manager Hudson Kavuludi, supervisor Jacob Kimutai, and two invigilators – Kingston Kavita and Tom Ominde – were arrested in order to help with investigations into reported exam irregularities at the school.

Police reported that at around 11 am, they received information that a candidate’s CRE Paper 1 had been photographed and the images were circulating on social media.

’Suspicious behaviour’

A team of police officers and officials led by the county commissioner proceeded to the school and confirmed that the CRE paper circulating on social media belonged to the candidate.

Police said the detained people had failed to satisfactorily explain how the material ended up on social media.

The suspects and the candidate recorded statements with the police. They were expected to be arraigned in a Kapsabet court.

“Necessary action has been taken by the sub-county director of education for the examination to proceed,” a police report said.

Elsewhere, in Baringo, a KCSE candidate was in police custody over allegations of engaging in exam cheating.

An officer from the Salawa police post on exam security duty at St Mary’s Secondary School was informed by an invigilator at around 9.40 am that a candidate was behaving suspiciously in an exam room.

The officer went to the exam room and spotted the male student with a Nokia C200 mobile phone between his thighs.

An examination of WhatsApp messages on the device showed that the phone contained a genuine copy of Christian Religion Paper 313/1 with answers.

“The candidate was requested to surrender the phone to the police officer but he refused to do so, prompting the necessary force to be used to confiscate [it],” the report said.

In Garissa, a KCSE candidate was being held by police over alleged exam irregularities.

As students sat their Islamic Religious Education Paper 1 at IHYA High School at around 1.35 pm, an invigilator seized a Samsung mobile phone from a candidate, according to a police report.

The invigilator handed over the phone to a Knec officer, who subsequently handed it over to police in Dadaab.

In the same area, during the Biology paper in the afternoon, acting on the information from a Knec official, Dadaab and Stapol IFO police investigators proceeded to Gedi Secondary School and confiscated an Itel mobile phone from a candidate.

This year’s reported exam malpractices have primarily involved adults, said Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba.

Comprehensive statistics on examination irregularities will be provided as soon as the exams are over, he said when he distributed KCSE tests at the Knec container at the Kabete deputy county commissioner’s office in Kiambu county.

In Migori, a KCSE candidate died after developing health complications.

Police said Moline Atieno, 19, a student at Okumbo Mixed Secondary School in Suna East sub-county, succumbed while being treated at Migori County Referral Hospital.

She was taken to the hospital after suffering kidney failure and cardiac complications.

In Nyeri, a KCSE candidate collapsed while sitting her exams.

An examination centre manager at Kianjogu Secondary School reported that the female student collapsed at around 10.15 am while sitting the CRE Paper 1 exam.

She was rushed to Karatina Sub-County Hospital by a security officer and an invigilator. She completed the test at the hospital.

She was in a stable condition.