Education cabinet secretary Ezekiel Machogu suspended nine exam centre managers on allegations of engaging in examination malpractice in the ongoing KCSE exams.
The nine centre managers suspended were manning exam centres which were allegedly marred by diverse malpractices.
The malpractices included the smuggling of unauthorised material into the exam rooms, using phones at the exam centres, impersonation as well as a conspiracy between candidates and exam invigilators.
Machogu also said another 46 candidates have so far been implicated in exam malpractice.
“So far we had 3 cases of collision, 2 impersonations and 9 centre managers that is the principals who were manning schools we have sent home …also 46 candidates were implicated,” he said
The CS spoke on Friday at the Kolanya Girls National School in Teso North, Busia County, during routine supervision of the ongoing KCSE exams.
“From the time we started KCSE, we managed to have a multiagency approach where apart from my ministry of Education, we also had the ministry of Interior and the Ministry of ICT.
" This is due to the particular approach and the kind of mechanism and measures that we were able to put in place in order to be effective in preventing and curbing cheating and malpractices,” Machogu said in an interview with the press.
The CS, however, said overall the KCSE exams were going well.
“I want to assure the country that all has gone very well because we have not had cases like before because of the new rule that we came up with of increasing the number of containers and distribution centres where centre managers who were coming for the papers in the morning and also went for the same in the afternoon.
"We are avoiding cases of early exposure which we used to experience before,” he said.
On November 7, Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang warned KCSE supervisors and invigilators against entering examination rooms with phones.
The PS said that it had come to his attention that some invigilators use their phones to share the papers online.
"It has been noted that some exam officials screenshot exam scripts and shared them on social media," Kipsang said.
903,260 candidates are sitting for the KCSE exams.
