Cheats plague KCSE

• A cartel of traders has set up centres from where genuine exam questions are relayed to candidates hours before tests begin, a NATION investigation found

“Verification of examination materials is done at the council.” Last week, the council dismissed as fake some of the questions sent to them by Saturday Nation.

Throughout the week, many teachers called the Nation to find out whether there had been a leakage of the exam.

Some Central, Coast, Nyanza and Rift Valley teachers said their candidates were calling them in the early morning to make inquiries on some topics.

One teacher from North Rift said he was shocked that topics on which his candidates had made enquiries all appeared in the examination.

Another, from South Nyanza, said her students broke into song and dance after a Mathematics paper, when they learnt that most of the questions for which they had sought assistance from her were actually exam questions.

Mr Wasanga said Knec had instituted watertight measures to ensure no candidate or outsider has access to the exam papers beforehand.

The Saturday Nation had obtained the questions as early as 6am on Wednesday morning and reported the matter to Kahawa Wendani AP post in the city (OB/05/28/09).

The questions matched the ones in the examination papers that the candidates did on the same day.

In Fasihi, all the six questions that were contained in a handwritten paper matched those that were tested, although some were written in short format.
But Mr Wasanga, who appeared to blame the media, said there was no way he could verify our claims.

Last week, the Daily Nation obtained parts of handwritten Maths and Geography papers in Nairobi which were being sold for Sh30,000.

Two students were arrested in Nandi and Marani amid reports from some parts of the country that candidates were buying and revising questions they claimed were genuine exam tests.

Three of those arrested were found with an English paper in Oyugis Town, Rachuonyo District.

Senior deputy secretary Eddah Muiruri said Knec was convinced that the exam papers discovered in different parts of the country were not genuine.
Last year, Knec dismissed similar reports, but it turned out that the papers were genuine.

The Saturday Nation findings mirror those of an investigation by Knec whose contents were exclusively published by the Nation in February.

The Knec report revealed that a gang based in Coast Province had been stealing and selling national examination papers for almost a decade now.