Nairobi — Some of the 330,000 Form Four candidates are accessing genuine exam questions, hours before writing the tests, the Saturday Nation reveals.

A two-week investigation established that a cartel of traders has established centres from where it relays question papers to its agents and candidates up to eight hours before the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam papers begin.

The questions are conveyed to targeted candidates using short text messages and mobile phone calls, according to Saturday Nation findings.

On Wednesday, Saturday Nation obtained 12 questions of Geography Paper 2 - which was scheduled to start at 2pm.

It turned out that all the questions that were in a handwritten format -- and read to our contacts on the mobile phone -- were all genuine.

The only difference in the questions was that they were written in short form, some in form of statements, which provided a good guide for students to find quick answers. Other questions obtained in advance and which turned out to be genuine were in Kiswahili (Fasihi) and literature.

The Fasihi paper was examined on Wednesday morning.

The cheating appears to have gone largely unnoticed as the exam continues and there have been no reported protests to the police or the exam agency.

But the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) boss, Mr Paul Wasanga, insisted that no exam papers were being leaked.

"As far as the council is concerned, not a single exam question has been leaked," he said of the Saturday Nation findings.

He declined to comment on specific questions relating to hand-written questions, which turned out to be genuine.

"Those are past papers and once a paper has been done, it becomes public property," he said. "I am not aware of any exam question that was out before the permitted time," he said.

Dismissed move

Although the Saturday Nation had reported its advance questions to the police as proof that the documents had been obtained in advance, Mr Wasanga dismissed the move.

"The police (station) is not the council," he said.

"Verification of examination materials is done at the council." Last week, the council dismissed as fake some of the questions sent to them by Saturday Nation.

Throughout the week, many teachers called the Nation to find out whether there had been a leakage of the exam.

Some Central, Coast, Nyanza and Rift Valley teachers said their candidates were calling them in the early morning to make inquiries on some topics.

One teacher from North Rift said he was shocked that topics on which his candidates had made enquiries all appeared in the examination.

Another, from South Nyanza, said her students broke into song and dance after a Mathematics paper, when they learnt that most of the questions for which they had sought assistance from her were actually exam questions.

Mr Wasanga said Knec had instituted watertight measures to ensure no candidate or outsider has access to the exam papers beforehand.

The Saturday Nation had obtained the questions as early as 6am on Wednesday morning and reported the matter to Kahawa Wendani AP post in the city (OB/05/28/09).

The questions matched the ones in the examination papers that the candidates did on the same day.

In Fasihi, all the six questions that were contained in a handwritten paper matched those that were tested, although some were written in short format.But Mr Wasanga, who appeared to blame the media, said there was no way he could verify our claims.

Last week, the Daily Nation obtained parts of handwritten Maths and Geography papers in Nairobi which were being sold for Sh30,000.

Two students were arrested in Nandi and Marani amid reports from some parts of the country that candidates were buying and revising questions they claimed were genuine exam tests.

Three of those arrested were found with an English paper in Oyugis Town, Rachuonyo District.

Senior deputy secretary Eddah Muiruri said Knec was convinced that the exam papers discovered in different parts of the country were not genuine.Last year, Knec dismissed similar reports, but it turned out that the papers were genuine.

The Saturday Nation findings mirror those of an investigation by Knec whose contents were exclusively published by the Nation in February.

The Knec report revealed that a gang based in Coast Province had been stealing and selling national examination papers for almost a decade now.

The investigation, which also looked at the police was conducted after last year's exams.

The Knec and police investigators, who began the investigation on October 21, 2008, found that at least five of the examination papers under guard at Bura East police station in Fafi were removed and sold to the gang for Sh80,000. Its report said the theft and sale of the papers had gone undetected since 1999.

Once Knec became aware of the pilferage after the first week of last year's KCSE, it moved to seal the loopholes that were being used to remove the papers from the stores.

Previously, it was possible to buy the stolen papers weeks or even months in advance, but action by Knec last year is said to have reduced the availability time to days, or even hours.

According to those familiar with the findings of the investigation, the well-connected and well-financed gang has been able to bribe those assigned to guard the papers at police stations.

In some cases, examination questions were passed to candidates in return for payment just hours before the start of the exams.

The findings of the investigation also indicated that the racket had become a money-minting machine for many people involved in the exam process --from school owners to teachers and guards.