200 schools targeted in exam cheating probe

More than 200 schools are under investigations over plans to cheat in the national examinations, which begin next week, Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said.

Also under probe is a teacher said to have collected Sh90,000 from students as payment for examination materials, she said, adding that the National Government will go for the assets of suspects involved in selling fake examination papers.

“We have identified several examination cartels that have been behind the sale of fake papers to parents and candidates.

"I will engage my colleagues at the Ministry of Interior, National Treasury, the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions to determine forensic means to deal with the proceeds accrued from this illegality. Culprits must be brought to book,” Ms Mohamed said at the Kenya School of Government during a brief on the examinations.

SURVEILLANCE

She was accompanied by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Education Principal Secretary Bellio Kipsang and other officials.

“So far, we have placed 30 examination centres under high dependency surveillance and 192 under amplified surveillance based on reported examination malpractice trends from 2015 to 2017,” she said.

“All examination containers will not be opened until the stipulated time, which is 5.30am. No centre should start distributing examination papers before the stipulated starting time.

"I will lead other senior government officials in the monitoring exercise to witness the opening of containers at the crack of dawn and to supervise examination distribution and management.”

She said the containers will have a double locking system and only sub-county directors of education and deputy county commissioners will have the keys.

“A total of 224 security officers will escort the examination materials from the Kenya National Examinations Council warehouse to the examination storage facilities in the counties. All question papers will be escorted by armed security officers everyday of the examination from collection to return of the answer scripts to the container and back to the council.”

VISITATION

Exam centre managers found to have opened examination packages before the appropriate time will be punished.

“Before the commencement of the examinations, we will put together a multisectoral team that will process reported cases of irregularities in real time and propose disciplinary action,” she said as she warned parents against visiting boarding schools until the end of term.

“In order to anticipate potential hurdles, particularly caused by the effects of changing climate, we will utilise daily weather advisories to help guide the day-to-day preparations to guarantee effective facilitation of the various players to administer the examinations efficiently,” she added.

Ms Mohamed will on tomorrow visit schools affected by tribal clashes in Molo, Njoro and Narok to ensure that the alternative systems are in place and fully operational.

A total of 1,060,759 candidates will sit for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and 664,586 for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

Dr Matiang’i said more than 70,000 security officers will be deployed to guard the examinations.