Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba announcing KJESA results at KNEC headquaters, Mtihiani House, Nairobi, December 11, 2025. /SCREENGRAB
Nairobi accounted for the highest number of candidates who sat the 2025 Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA), Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has announced.
A total of 1,130,459 candidates sat the inaugural KJSEA with male accounting for 578,630 (51.19 per cent) and female candidates 551,829 female (48.81 per cent).
Speaking while releasing the results at the Kenya National Examination Council headquarters in Nairobi, Ogamba said Nairobi registered 71,022 candidates, followed by Kakamega County with 59,384, while Nakuru ranked third with 54,028.
He said 41 counties recorded a significantly higher entry of male candidates than female candidates, while Mombasa was the only county that achieved gender parity.
Isiolo, Samburu, Nairobi, Marsabit and West Pokot had a significantly higher number of female than male candidates, he added.
"Majority of the learners who sat for the 2025 KJSEA, that is 642,620 which is 56.84 per cent, were within the appropriate age range of 14 to 15 years," Ogamba said.
He said the number of underage learners (13 years and below) were 35,270 (3.12 per cent).
Those aged 16 and 17 years were 415,059 (36.71 per cent).
Learners aged 18 years and above were 37,638 (3.33 per cent) with Kilifi county recording the highest propotion of overage learners (16 and above) at 64.90 per cent, followed by Kwale at 64.78 per cent; Garissa 63.38 pwer cent, Taita Taveta 62.06 per cent and Mandera at 62.05 per cent.
Baringo county had the highest percentage of underage learners at 10.10 per cent followed by Bomet (7.56 per cent), Marsabit (7.84 per cent), Narok (7.28 per cent) and Kericho 7.25 per cent.
The candidates were assessed on four levels of exceeding expecgtations, meeting expectations, approaching expectatiopn and below expectation.
The score metric was based on eight points with 8 representing the best performance of exceeding expetation 1 while 1 represents below expectation 2.
