KNEC bosses face sacking and prosecution over mass leakages of KCPE and KCSE

NAIROBI: Top officials of the Kenya National Examinations Council may face sackings and possible prosecutions when Parliament returns from recess as a result of widespread exam leakages.

This comes as KNEC is scheduled to release the results of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Wednesday that were discredited by incidences of leakages of exam questions before being officially administered.

A motion to send home the current leadership of Knec was approved by the National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and is expected to be slotted for debate in the floor of the House when the MPs return from the end-year recess.

It is currently before the House Business Committee of the National Assembly which determines the agenda of legislators.

Mbooni MP Kisoi Munyao, who is sponsoring the motion said that the current Knec leadership should be made to face the responsibility of the leakages in the national examinations in order to restore the crisis of confidence that threatens the country's education system.

"Incompetence and criminal negligence by the current leadership of Knec has put us in a position where the credibility of entire education system is being doubted locally and internationally. This issue must be addressed urgently to restore confidence," he said.

He added: "This motion will ensure that the national examinations body takes its mandate seriously since incompetence in such a sensitive institution will severely damage the credibility of the entire education system."

Mr Munyao, who also sits in the National Assembly Education Committee, raised doubts about the credibility of the KCPE results that are to be released on Wednesday by Knec

He said many students may get grades they don't deserve while many others may be victimised unfairly by having their results cancelled, yet they may not have been part of the exam leakage scam.

Recently, Knec CEO Dr Joseph Kivilu claimed that despite incidences of leakage and cheating, the institution has mechanisms to ensure that exam results are credible.

He claimed that Knec has "foolproof methods" of detecting cheating saying those marking the exams have ways of singling out those who are likely to have cheated.

But the Mbooni MP dismissed the comments saying it was a lame reason given by Knec to downplay the damage on the credibility of national exams in the country. He said a forensic audit to determine the extent of the leakages is yet to be done by Knec.

"Instead of admitting responsibility for the leakage, apologising to Kenyans and vacating office, Knec officials are still downplaying this crisis. It is such impunity that this motion seeks to address," he said.

The Mbooni MP, claimed that his motion has support from majority of MPs and will easily be approved.

He called on the House Business Committee to give priority on the motion saying many Kenyans are keen to see a close scrutiny of the examinations body.

"Officials of Knec need to be investigated with regard to the role they played in the exam leakage. It is likely that some of them had a hand in the scam. That is why they have no business being in office. This motion wants them to be removed to allow for investigations and possible prosecutions," he said.

Several media houses demonstrated that several of the exam papers were accessible to students prior to them being administered despite repeated attempts by Knec officials to downplay the matter.

Those who may face the proposed purge include the current Chair of the Council's Board of Directors Prof Kabiru Kinyanjui, Knec Secretary and CEO Dr Joseph Kivilu among others.