It is shocking that despite continued vigilance during national examinations, cases of irregularities continue to thrive in what is emerging to be the biggest threat to the credibility of the Kenyan education system.

For 1,904 students to have been caught cheating in the 2009 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, up from 1,835 last year, is a clear signal that several measures announced in 2008 to curb examination malpractices have not worked.

And therefore, for Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri to announce yet another roll out of curbs, should not be seen as the end to this kind of a vice.

On Tuesday, Prof Ongeri said students caught cheating in tests administered by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) will be barred from such papers for two consecutive years.

He also said birth certificate numbers will also be used in registering and identifying candidates sitting for the exams.

These were among the measures the minister hopes will halt these malpractices.

But even as KNEC implements them in the New Year, there is need to re-look at the whole examination system to seal the loopholes and also ensure that the punitive measures are well applied and executed to catch all those involved in the cheating.

From the previous cases of examination malpractices, it should now be very clear to KNEC that cheaters are getting more sophisticated every day.

Secondly, the cheating game is a web involving parents, teachers, candidates, and profiteering exam officials who collude to defeat the exam rules.

They assist candidates get copies of examination papers in advance or by forwarding to them answers to exam papers in progress, especially using mobile phones.

These revelations therefore mean that all those involved must be punished.

While the candidate will first have their exams cancelled, this should not stop at that, they should face the full force of the law.

And in the corridors of justice, they should join their parents, teachers or exam officials who assisted them in answering to the charges of cheating in examinations.

If need be, KNEC and by extension the Ministry of Education should push for regulatory reforms to provide for the best punitive measures which befit people who collude to hurt the integrity, validity and reliability of examinations in the country.

For years KNEC has been struggling to win this war for both KCPE and KCSE tests.

Such measures include changing the timetable to fit all the papers in the morning to give no room for short-cuts.

But it has been living in denial even when there was evidence that something was going wrong during the administration of the examinations.

It is the credibility of Kenya's education system--which is already reeling under the heavy weight of examination malpractices and dwindling quality--that is at stake here.

All Kenyans must ask themselves whether we should allow this nature of utter dishonesty to continue.

With this, we will have sacrificed hard work at the altar of short-cuts in getting good grades.

Let us therefore see these new measures implemented to the letter and more brought in to regain the credibility of our education system.