A total of 26 inmates from Naivasha GK Prison joined candidates for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams.

Among the students include seven who is serving a life sentence for offences of murder, robbery with violence and defilement.

During the exams in the country’s largest prison, two of the inmates who had been registered missed out with one on transfer while the other had been set free.

Superintendent Kevin Muhoro from the penal institution says the inmates were well prepared ahead of the national exams.

He termed Covid-19 as the major challenge the education sector had faced, forcing them to close down at the height of the pandemic.

Muhoro said that teaching personnel and learning materials remained a challenge for the education programme that has over 1,000 students.

Internal funds

He noted that unlike their counterparts in public schools, they were using internal funds to get the learning materials against a rise in the number of inmates seeking education.

“We have seen an upsurge in the number of prisoners seeking education and due to lack of qualified teachers, we have been forced to use fellow inmates to teach them,” he said.

On his part, Peter Moru who is serving a life sentence for defilement said that they were well prepared for the exams.

“We have many challenges like lack of enough books and teachers but we are sure we will beat the odds,” said Moru.

This came as the department of education in Naivasha termed the exercise as smooth with no anomaly or challenges recorded on the first day.

Speaking on phone, Naivasha sub-county education officer Bernard Chirchir said that a total of 5,509 candidates were sitting the KCPE exams.