• Just like last year, Knec will only allow headteachers to have phones in schools.
• Interior CS Matiang'i says the National Police Service will provide helicopters for weather emergencies.
Image: FILE
A team of 70,000 security officers will be deployed in different parts of the country to safeguard this year’s KCPE and KCSE examinations.
The heavy security machinery will involve officers from the regular police department, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the National Intelligence Service. They will be involved in undercover operations, mobile phone tracking, manning school premises and emergency responses.
A command centre, set up at Harambee House, will be the epicentre of the operations and will involve security officers keeping tabs on the details of the exams.
The Star has learnt that the government will heavily bank on surveillance to close in on possible bribery that would facilitate early exposure of the examination.
Prior to 2016, exam malpractice had gone out of hand, with some schools and students seeking an unfair advantage over others. Racketeers turned exams into an organised criminal enterprise. They had a ready market in parents and schools that were willing to part with cash to get leakage.
The stringent measures adopted in 2016 struck a blow to the enterprise but left a small loophole that has for the last three years been the subject of government headache in its efforts to ensure no one has access to an exam paper before is done.
To seal the loophole, The Star has established that the government plans to bank on plainclothes DCI officers to monitor the tests. They will be in charge of undercover operations where collusion might arise.
Just like last year, the Kenya National Exam Council will allow only headteachers to have phones in schools.
The government is also banking on tracking the headteachers’ phones through intelligence officers based at the Nairobi Command Centre to establish any malicious activities that could undermine the integrity of the exams. The surveillance involves checking for possible information exchange.
Education CS George Magoha on Monday said the surveillance will cover a two-kilometre radius.
“There is no exam that will be seen except in the morning that the exam is to be sat… We know all the tricks that have been employed and our surveillance is going to go two kilometres from the school,” he said.
Schools that will be used as exam centres will be allocated two police officers, who will provide security during the exam period.
On Thursday, principals and headteachers who double as centre managers met at their subcounties to deliberate on their role insofar as the management of the exams are concerned.
This year, 1,088,987 learners will sit the KCPE exam, while 689,746 will sit the KCSE exam. The school heads will be required to file daily progress reports.
With the Meteorological department forecast revealing that some parts of the country will experience rains, the examination council is keen to ensure this does not disrupt exams.
Interior CS Fred Matiang’i says the National Police Service will provide helicopters in such cases. The Star has learnt that the government also plans to have more officers in areas mapped as insecure.
At the moment, the council is engaging in moving exam materials from the Nairobi headquarters to the safety containers at the subcounty offices where headteachers will pick them on the morning of the exams.
Edited by R.Wamochie