Twenty seven KCSE candidates who were allegedly found with 35 mobile phones in an examination room were yesterday arraigned before Makadara court.
The investigating officer sought seven days to detain the students pending investigations.
The officer told chief magistrate Heston Nyaga that he needed more time to investigate the matter since the candidates who were sitting for a Chemistry paper were arrested on Wednesday.
The candidates were sitting the exams at St Teresa Primary School.
In an affidavit before court, officer Christopher Samoel said the candidates were arrested after he received information from centre manager Simon Kimani that there was examination malpractice.
“Upon search, 35 mobile phones were recovered from the candidates in the examination room. The phones had Whatsapp messages purporting to be Chemistry Paper II of 2019 answer sheet,” Samoel told court.
He said he had not established the source of the examination materials and that he suspects there were accomplices not yet arrested.
The officer said he needed to subject the mobile phones to forensic examination to retrieve the Whatsapp text messages.
He also needed to obtain an original Chemistry Paper II of 2019 from the Kenya National Examination Council for comparison.
However the candidates opposed the application saying that they were still sitting for their exams should be released on bond.
The magistrate released them on a cash bail of Sh20,000 each and directed that they report to the police station every Saturday until the exams end.
The matter will be mentioned on November 28.
