Thousands of Form Four students yesterday started the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination as the government said it had put in place adequate measures to prevent malpractices.

In Embu North, however, it was reported that eight candidates had not shown up to sit their exams.
Embu North Deputy County Commissioner Walter Ngaira said four the eight candidates had disappeared from school after registering for the exam. Ngaira said their relatives could not even trace the candidates.

Another candidate failed to sit the exam after he fell ill and went back to Form Three while two private candidates did not show up.

“We have a few candidates who disappeared after registration and we cannot trace them. We have a total of eight in the sub-county, one is in hospital with mental condition,’’ said Ngaira.

Elsewhere, Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said there was need to deal with the trust deficit among Kenyans on the administration of exams.

“For how long are we going to have this trust deficit? We cannot continue this way. The amount of investment we are putting into protecting integrity of the exam is something we should not be doing but we need to build trust as Kenyans,” said Kipsang.

He added: “Trust deficit is killing us. We are here at 6am because we want to police ourselves… it is not right. We should be able to leave our children to be children,” the PS said when he supervised exam collection and distribution at Westlands container in Nairobi.

The PS also said they have been working with ICT Ministry, Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), cybercrime and telecommunication firms to ensure the integrity of exams.

“We have been able to deal with quite a number of sites on social media. Quite a number of them have been closed and people arrested. We will continue to be hard on social media fellows who are giving us challenges and we look forward to our colleagues at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, cybercrime and CA in making sure that these sites are brought down,” the PS said.

And for areas that have been experiencing heavy rainfall like Turkana and Tana River counties, the PS said helicopters are being used to ensure examination materials reach all centres.

“We have urged officers to do a quick assessment and if the environment is not good for an exam, then they can move candidates to a better and nearer school. We have urged teachers and field officers to make reasonable judgment and ensure the welfare our children is not compromised,” Kipsang said.

The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Chief Executive Officer David Njengere said exam papers will this year be collected twice, with morning session papers being released first while the second session papers will be released in the afternoon.

When he supervised collection of exam materials in Kiambu yesterday, Njengere said one of the challenges in last year’s KCSE exam was early exposure of second session papers, a problem which the new rule is expected to address.

The centre managers, he explained, will be required to return the morning scripts to the container and collect the second session papers at 12.30pm.

“We want to make sure that at the school level, the centre manager and the supervisor, coordinate efficiently so that the paper ends immediately, returned and second session papers are collected and taken to the centres in time. Efficiency will be very important,” he said.

The Knec boss said only centre managers will be allowed to use mobile phones during exams.
“All other phones should be kept in the centre managers’ offices. We aim to ensure credibility of our examinations. Cooks, security people at the gate, no one should have a phone in the school,” he said.

Njengere also appealed to centre managers not to take unnecessary risks, particularly when they have to deal with extreme weather conditions.

“We have seen clips on social media where some people are trying to cross rivers. Please if there is a river between point A and point B, please don’t try to be a hero. You would rather wait or send a distress call to our call centre so that we can help you,” he said.

He gave the 24-hour toll-free call centre of 0800 724,900 that anyone can call if they encounter a problem or if a member of the public wishes to report anything that concerns exams.

“Every centre manager has the rules and regulations. I also sent a letter to every candidate sitting this examination and explained to them very clearly our expectations of what they should do to avoid malpractices and the sanctions in the event of malpractices,” he said.

The exams started in an orderly manner in most parts of the country.

Health scare

In Kakamega, no hitches were reported, with principals saying they were confident of registering good performance.

“We have put measures in place to guarantee a conducive environment to our students. We have prepared them well,” said Sr Jane Mmbone, the Principal of Sacred Heart Mukumu Girls.

A spot check at St Ignatius Mukumu Boys, Kakamega High, Musingu Boys, St Peter’s Seminary-Mukumu and St Mary’s Mumias Girls High schools established that the exercise had kicked off smoothly.

At Eregi Girls, which recently had a health scare after over 100 students were taken ill, the school Principal Jackline Itubo said the situation had been contained and the candidates were well prepared for the exam.
“Our candidates have just completed Chemistry Paper I and are set for English Paper I in the afternoon.

Our girls are in high spirits and raring to go. We have confidence in them,” she told People Daily.
In the banditry prone counties of the North Rift, it was a peaceful start with security having been beefed in the region.

People Daily established that security measures had been enhanced in trouble spots in Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and Turkana counties.

Rift Valley Regional Coordinator Abdi Hassan said enough security personnel had been deployed in the region.

“We have also made necessary arrangements to ensure that exam materials are airlifted in areas affected by floods as a result of heavy rains,” said Hassan.

Some bridges in the region have been swept away as a result of heavy rains which have also rendered many roads impassable.

Hassan said more security personnel, including Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officers, had been deployed in Baringo South and Baringo North which recently experienced bandit attacks that disrupted learning.

“We have not experienced any ugly incident so far,” he said.
— Reporting by Irene Githinji, Wycliff Kipsang, Brian Malila and Dennis Lumiti