Varsity students, two others arrested over KCPE cheating plot

By JOSEPH MASHA

KILIFI, KENYA: Four people, among them two students from Pwani University in Kilifi County, were arrested on Tuesday after they were allegedly found printing papers suspected to be replicas of the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination.

The scripts turned out to be bogus documents but police believe the suspects were preparing them for extortion purposes.

According to Kilifi police boss Justine Nyaga, his officers received a tip-off that some people at the university were printing KCPE examination papers.

Nyaga said officers deployed to the university arrested two students and two outsiders.

The police boss said yesterday that the four suspects were taken to Kilifi Police Station where they were detained as further investigations were conducted.

He said the four would be arraigned in court to face charges of plotting to extort money from KCPE candidates.

Kilifi County Education Director Dickson ole Keis confirmed the arrests, saying the four suspects were caught printing what was suspected to be English and mathematics papers, which were done on Tuesday.

“When the four were arrested on Tuesday morning, we had to wait until the mathematics and English papers were done by the pupils before we made verifications but we found that the printed papers did not tally with those of the national examinations,” said Keis yesterday.

He said the suspects might have intended to sell the fake papers to candidates.

The official urged police and invigilators to be alert and arrest anybody suspected to be circulating false copies of the national examination.