Public's views sought on exam cheating Bill

By Felix Olick and Lucianne Limo

The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) is seeking public views on a draft Bill that proposes harsh punishment for cheats.

According to the draft document, a candidate found cheating in national examinations would be disqualified from taking the entire test and banned from sitting similar examinations for a period of three years.

Similarly, a person found with examination papers or information purporting to relate to the content of any paper would be liable to ten years imprisonment or a fine of Sh2 million.

Worse the prosecution will not be obliged to prove in court that the paper or information is real or false.

Knec Chief Executive Paul Wasanga has announced that education stakeholders and members of the public should contribute towards the Knec Bill 2012 to build a proper legal framework to manage examinations.

“This current Knec Act does not address the emerging issues on examination irregularities and examination administration and hence the main reason for the review to address the emerging challenges,” decried the Knec boss.

According to the draft, Knec would have the powers to withhold the examination results of any candidate pending investigation in cases where cheating is suspected.

These are some of the radical proposals in the proposed draft Bill aimed at exorcising the ghost of examination cheating that has refused to go away.

Sh2 million fine

Other proposals include imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine of Sh2 million for any individual who impersonates a candidate.

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere has defended his officers against accusations of abetting cheating.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Education yesterday, Iteere said he has not received any complaints against police officers with regards to exam malpractices.

The committee summoned Iteere following a petition they received from more than 1,000 students from North Eastern Province whose Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results were cancelled over allegations of cheating.

“Our role as police officers is to escort the exam papers from Knec offices to ensure they are not tampered with on transit. The responsibility from there on lies with the invigilators and education officers,” said Iteere.

Iteere said examination irregularities can be stamped out if all stakeholders, including Knec, police, schools and Ministry of Education work together.

He said there is also need to reshuffle officers at Knec who have worked for more than 10 years to break the circle of exam malpractices.

He also asked Knec to procure containers for storage of exam materials in police stations.

“This has already been done on pilot basis in some police stations in Coast Eastern, Nairobi, Western and Nyanza provinces,” he said.

Iteere regretted that there is no law to charge principals who fail to register their candidates during national examinations.

“We have advised the council to form a team of experts to review administrative and legal laws and regulations governing the examinations with a view to strengthening the legal system,” said the police boss.