School director to be prosecuted over failure to register four KCPE candidates

KERICHO: Legal trouble is brewing for the director of St Jude Grassland Primary School, Mrs Beatrice Omwoyo for failing to register four candidates for the Kenya Certificate of Primary School Education (KCPE) examination.

Speaking after overseeing the distribution of the KCPE examination papers, Kericho County Commissioner Muktar Abdi asked the affected pupils and their parents to file formal complaint with the police in order to pave way for the arrest and prosecution of the suspect.

On Monday evening, angry parents stormed the school located at Nyagacho estate at the outskirts of Kericho town and confronted Mrs. Omwoyo over the failure to register the four pupils out of the ten candidates.

“We ask the affected pupils and their parents to record their complaints with the police or the criminal investigations department so that we can begin formal investigations into the matter with the view of arresting those responsible and arraign them in court for flouting the Education Act,” said Abdi.

The County Commissioner who was flanked by the Kericho Police Commander James Mugera and the County Director of Education Fred Osewe said had if they been aware about the accident early enough, they would have asked the Kenya National Examination Council to intervene and register the four candidates.

“In order to avoid similar future occurrences, the ministry of education officials should conduct inspection in all the schools in order to ensure that all the candidates for the national examinations have been registered accordingly,” said Abdi.

Kericho County Director of Education Fred Osewe pointed out that by the time of KCPE registration process, the school had not been registered by the government.

“From our records, the school was registered in June but it already had candidates not in this year’s KCPE examination but also in last year’s examination whom they offloaded to other schools to be registered,” he said.

Osewe revealed that they were going to take stern action against St Jude Grassland management for flouting the education act.

“The possible consequences might include deregistration of the school,” he said.

Meanwhile, Incarcerated teachers at Kericho GK prison now have nothing to do but to wait for the results of the 23 KCPE candidates and inmates at the facility.

Since their incarceration Shadrach Maina, a high school who before being jailed was a high school teacher in a school in Migori County and Duncan Langat, a primary school teacher, have been spending their time behind bars teaching the candidates.

“As a high school teacher, I decided that I should continue practicing the profession even in jail and give an opportunity for the inmates who have never sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam an opportunity to sit for it and proceed to join secondary school,” said Maina.

The prisoner who is serving a six-year jail sentence for manslaughter, expressed confidence that the candidates at the facility will outperform some of the candidates in nearby public schools.

“This is my second year in prison and this is the second batch of candidates I have taught. I have confidence that this year’s candidates will perform exceptionally well bearing in mind that the best candidate in the 2017 KCPE who sat for the examination here scored 381 marks,” said Maina.