• Magoha said even though there were cases of cheating, there were no incidences of exam leakages reported this year.
• He said a total of 100 phones were confiscated before they ere used by the candidates.
Image: COURTESY
Knec has cancelled the KCSE examinations results of 1,309 students after they were linked to cheating.
This is a decrease from last year, when 4,519 students' results were withheld over cheating.
While releasing the results at the Knec headquarters on Wednesday, Education CS George Magoha said even though there were cases of cheating, there were no incidences of exam leakages reported this year.
"I can say without fear of contradiction that there were no exam leakages this year," he said.
"Our enhanced measures to fight exam malpractices in schools have exceeded high measures of success. We have sanitsed our children; the issue of leakage before exams is now past tense."
Magoha said that cases of impersonation and phone possession increased compared to last year.
He said a total of 100 phones were confiscated before they were used by candidates.
Magoha praised a police officer who reported being offered a bribe to aid in exam cheating.
Nancy Macharia, the Knec CEO, also said some students who will have their results withheld based on registration data will have to clear all pending issues with the examination body.
Last year, Knec cancelled KCSE results for 4,519 candidates in 44 centres from 16 counties due to cheating as compared to 1,205 in 2017.
A total of 699,745 students sat for this year's examinations which were concluded on November 27.
The 14-day marking process started on November 28 and came to an end on December 12 and Knec officials started to analyse the results.
A total of 627 students scored A plain during this year's KCSE exam, up from 315 last year, Magoha said.
This marks a 50 per cent rise in As this year.
The best student was Tony Wabuko, from Kapsabet High School, who scored an A plain of 87.159 points.
Njeri Barasa of Kenya High School scored an A of 87.087 points.