• “We believe that devaluing the integrity of our exams and certificates presents an existential threat to our country and we have to close ranks to and deal with it."
• Among the bodies the party has written to include the Catholic Bishops Conference, the National Council of Churches of Kenya and the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims.
Image: ODM
ODM leader Raila Odinga has claimed fraud was involved in the entire process of preparing and managing this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams leading to compromised results.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Azimio boss said he has written to the DCI and 12 other stakeholders including religious organizations and the teacher unions to stand up and ensure the integrity of national examinations is restored.
“We believe that devaluing the integrity of our exams and certificates presents an existential threat to our country and we have to close ranks and deal with it dispassionately and professionally,” he said.
Raila said among the bodies the party has written to include the Catholic Bishops Conference, the National Council of Churches of Kenya, the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Kenya Secondary School Heads Association, Primary School Head Teachers association, Kenya National Union of Teachers, and the Law Society of Kenya.
Others are the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, National Parents Association, Kenya Private Schools Association, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Federation of Kenya Employers.
"Going by the fate of the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakango, we believe political interference will not allow the EACC and DCI to deal with this matter. But we put this issue to the agencies as a matter of public record," Raila said.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said there was no cheating in this year's KCPE exams save for six cases of attempted cheating.
"Out of 1,415,315 candidates, the only cases that we had were six," he said while releasing the results at the new Mitihani House in South C.
On November 26, the Kenya National Examination Council acknowledged that 133 candidates were awarded wrong marks in the exams.
Knec CEO David Njengere further admitted that some candidates and schools received wrong results as transmitted via the 40054 SMS code.
He said some candidates also received misaligned results where marks and grades in Kiswahili were placed in the Kenyan Sign Language section.
"The error affected only the SMS results due to configuration issues as the results in the KNEC portal are accurate," Njengere said.
Raila attributed this mess to government's "abrupt" change of the contract of printing exam papers from a secure printing firm in the UK to one along Mombasa Road.
This, he said, was done despite the government being informed that the Mombasa Road printer did not have capacity to print the exams and ensure its security and integrity especially on such short notice.
"We believe this process, of a sudden change of printer and having them printed on short notice, is responsible for the disaster we have witnessed with respect to KCPE," Raila said.
The Azimio leader said the same mess was replicated in the procurement for relaying the results.
He said the contract was taken away from the original provider and awarded on short notice to a company that did not have capacity to handle the same "in return for kickbacks".
"This led to the mess where the results received expensively using the short code were different from the one on the KNEC portal and sent to schools. It led to what KNEC has called misalignment of marks and grades," Raila said.
"Grades in Science and Social Studies as well as Religious Studies were truncated. The system deployed could not produce the Plus and Minus signs. What a shame."
Knec ruled out cheating at a school in Isiolo where most candidates score 75 marks in Science.
"Science is a multiple-choice question paper, thus making it possible for the candidates to get identical marks,” Njegere said.
He said though the incident may be assumed to be an examination irregularity, it is not adequate evidence for Knec to sanction the results for candidates without a supporting report that cheating happened during the administration of examination.