KCSE exams continue today for the second week and the government has said security will remain tight.
Uasin Gishu county commissioner Abdi Hassan on Friday said all exam centres will remain under strict guard.
Kerio Valley, which is prone to banditry attacks, is under tight security.
Edwin Odhiambo, an exam official at Eldoret Secondary School, said 13 candidates will not sit the test.
Twelve of them did not show up to school at the beginning of the exams and have not been traced to date.
The 13th candidate has cancer. “The one who is sick has called to inform the school he will not be able to sit the exam,” Odhiambo said.
The exams have gone on in the Rift counties without any other hitch.
Candidates interviewed said they are well prepared for the exam.
Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago said he is satisfied with the way the exam materials have been secured.
TSC boss Nancy Macharia, who presided over the opening of papers in Eldoret and Iten towns, said the integrity and credibility of the KCSE exam this year will be higher.
Macharia said new measures introduced last year for managing national exams have helped eliminate cheating and other irregularities.
She says the KCSE exams are going on smoothly without hitches in most areas. “We can assure parents and Kenyans we will deliver the most credible and successful exams this year because of the measures we have put in place since last year,” Macharia said.
In Elgeyo Marakwet, police are still investigating an incident where the principal of Moi Kapsowar Girls’ Secondary School allegedly received a leaked KCSE examination paper via WhatsApp.
Dinah Cheruiyot reportedly received a chemistry paper on Monday from David Wafula, a teacher at St Theresa’s Secondary School in Kitale.
Marakwet West police boss Apollo Onyoni said Cheruiyot recorded a statement at Kapsowar police station and investigations are ongoing.
Mandago urged the government to hire additional teachers in preparation for the free day secondary school education to be implemented next year.
He said the number of students is likely to increase in day secondary schools and there is an acute shortage of teachers.
Mandago said the government should also help finance the expansion of facilities at the schools to ensure provision of quality education.
The government has scrapped the Sh9,374 school fees which each student in public secondary schools has been paying per year, paving way for complete free day secondary education from January.
Education PS Belio Kipsang said the government will pay the subsidy.
Each learner in public schools will receive Sh22,224 from the government from January 2018.
Parents will buy school uniforms and pay for lunch for day scholars.
Students in boarding and day schools will receive a similar amount.
Parents will pay for boarding and other infrastructural projects as approved by boards of management.