Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has said that the state will punish examination offenders individually rather than cancelling results for entire centres.

In a statement on Monday, November 11, 2024, Ogamba urged candidates, field officers and staff overseeing the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams to adhere to the regulations or face prosecution.

“We have put in place very serious measures to the extent that this year if there is any malpractice, we are not going to condemn the whole school, the whole centre and the number of people who are there; it is going to be individualized,” CS Ogamba said.

“Where we find that a whole team conspired to ensure that there is interference as it happened in Homa Bay, we will follow the evidence and ensure that those involved are going to face the music,” he added, “Where we find that a student has taken a phone which has been allowed into an exam room where they take a photo of their own paper and send it around, we will know because each paper is serialised with an individual student.”

No-phone rule

Ogamba also urged the officials to observe the guideline which states that all phones within the exam centre will be stored together in a locker guarded by a police officer assigned to the exam centre.

“I do not want any of us caught in that scenario. Let us work diligently and follow the guidelines because they are very simple and clear,” Ogamba urged.

He revealed that the government had arrested a group of people using Instagram to conduct examination irregularities and that they would be arraigned in court.

This comes after eight teachers were arrested in Homa Bay County after police officers caught them photocopying examination question papers.

The Ministry of Education noted that they had replaced the eight teachers and that they would be processed and arraigned to face appropriate charges.

“We managed to arrest eight persons including the centre manager, invigilators and BOG teachers. They were found photocopying the papers and exhibits have been taken. All the eight persons are in custody at Homa Bay Police Station,” Homa Bay Sub-County police commander Emmanuel Kiplagat said on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

The KCSE exams entered their fourth week on Monday, November 11, 2024, with candidates sitting the Mathematics paper 2 from 8:00 am and the Kiswahili paper 2 from 11:00 am.