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Kenya: National Outrage Over KCSE Fiasco
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The East African Standard (Nairobi)
23 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Nairobi
The integrity and credibility of the Kenya National Examinations Council continued to erode as leaders, parents and teachers demanded its disbandment.
The body is under fire over its handling of last year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination, which saw the results of 4,438 candidates from 857 schools recalled for "slight adjustments".
Education minister, Prof Sam Ongeri, conceded that KNEC's handling of the exams was a "national embarrassment".
Prof Ongeri, who replaced Internal Security minister Prof George Saitoti, released the initial results, but last week, he set up a 15-member team to probe the fiasco.
Though still struggling to downplay the problem which he said affected a negligible number of candidates who wrote the exams - o.6 per cent - the minister said those found to have meddled with the exercise will each carry their cross.
But even more worrying to schools, parents and candidates was the quiet release of a second list, as exclusively reported by The Saturday Standard with more schools and candidates being relegated.
On Saturday, the minister said the second list was indeed the more authoritative, as it was drawn up after the problem was rectified.
"I ask Kenyans to be patient and hold their horses. I assure them that action will be taken against those implicated by Prof Olive Mugenda's commission," the minister told the Sunday standard.
He added: "If somebody is found to have caused this problem, he or she will be arraigned in court. Nobody will go scot-free."
Ongeri revealed that he too wanted to know what transpired and those responsible, and if indeed KNEC was a den of corruption.
He however argued there was no cause for alarm, as individual candidates had not been affected. He added that the second pecking order of schools was arrived at after the tallying error was corrected. "After the errors in tallying the schools' mean grades were corrected, the ministry found it necessary to inform the affected schools, and I see nothing wrong in that."
Ongeri went on: "The KCSE saga does not warrant the hue and cry from Kenyans. I am a responsible minister and parent, and I want Kenyans to have confidence in me and the commission of professionals I have set up."
He said the commission will also probe claims of corruption at the exams body and other ministry related sectors, including university admission teams.
Ongeri, at the same time, took issue with Orange Democratic Movement MPs who criticised him for standing by the results. He said it was wrong for ODM to target him as an individual " knowing very well I was not in charge when the exams were being marked".
"I am reading politics in this attack directed at me. I have assured Kenyans that the problem is being looked at professionally.
"It is clear some leaders are eyeing the ministry, which is why they are dragging me into this debacle. But we leave that to the appointing authority, who is the President," he said.
Ongeri told Kenyans to "read between the lines".
" I was not even the minister when the KCSE exam was done and marked," said Ongeri, adding that he had only announced the results.
He claimed that yesterday's exclusive story in The Saturday Standard was a misrepresentation of facts. "After correcting the erroneous mean grades of candidates, the ranking of schools was bound to be affected," said Ongeri.
ODM Secretary-General, Prof Anyang' Nyong'o, and party chief whip, Mr Jakoyo Midiwo, piled pressure on the Government to restore the integrity and credibility of the examination council.
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Said Nyong'o: "We must disband the exam council and replace the staff with people of unrivalled integrity who cannot be compromised or pressured to cook results."
Nyong'o said MPs must legislate laws that would ensure autonomy and professionalism at the council. Kenya Catholic Education Commission Chairman, Bishop Maurice Crowley, said the affected students should not be taken as "mere statistics".
Crowley, also the Kitale Diocese bishop, said it was good that the minister had owned up there was a major fiasco "and it is time now to take action".
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