Former Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has called for probe in to the manner in which the Kenya National Examinations Council has cancelled results for hundreds of candidates.
Mudavadi also wants Knec to unconditionally release withheld results to stop the trauma caused to candidates and parents.
“It disheartens and is opaque for Knec to merely make allegations that condemn the future of innocent young Kenyans without due process. Knec is covering up its inefficiencies and probably corruption within its ranks by shifting malpractice to students”, the Amani Coalition leader said.
He said the constitution right for every child to receive an education is being countermanded by Knec casual decisions.
Mudavadi accused KNEC of lack of transparency saying the exam body is the only one with capacity to prevent exam cheating instead of stepping in after the fact to condemn students.
“KNEC sets, supervises, marks and grade exams. It is inconceivable that it cannot detect cheating early enough to remedy the situation but instead waylays students with exam results. They must tell us at what stage leaks occur and apportion blame accordingly”, he said.
He said at it is suspicious that Maths and English results for all the 307 Chavakali high school students could be faulted in collective punishment. He said the two subjects being compulsory for university intake, there is an ulterior motive in their cancellation. He expressed doubts that all candidates could cheat in an English paper.
“What is the motive of ensuring one school doesn’t send students to university? Is it to kill the school? The English paper exam is very diverse. How do candidates get to cheat in composition? Is it that they copy the same composition written by somebody else?” he asked adding that KNEC earlier admitted that school principals are being extorted or else.
“If agents of corruption at KNEC have differences with the school management, it should not be allowed to punish students. We cannot allow money payouts to determine exam results”,
Calling for investigation of KNEC for corruption, Mudavadi said “students cannot access exams on their own. The leakage comes from KNEC and it is KNEC we must punish not innocent students” adding that it was time to review the draconian regulations that allow KNEC to hide its incompetence and condemn its victim candidates unheard.
“Our exam system even at university provides for remedy through supplementary exams where irregularities are detected. Why is KNEC an exception? If leaks are found, the source should be identified and punished and innocent candidate given the earliest opportunity to re-sit a supplementary paper”, he posed.
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