THIS year's Form Four and Standard Eight final examinations will take place under tight security because of threats to disrupt them by the Mombasa Republican Council and terror groups.

Kenya National Examination Council chief executive officer Paul Wasanga yester day said 63, 228 police officers will be deployed to ensure the safety of the candidates. "We have serious concerns on threats posed by the MRC in Mombasa," he said.

He, however, said the council has the full government support to deal with the threats. This year, 437,786 candidates are sitting for the KCSE examination, which started on October 15. Most of the papers will be done between November 5 and 21.

The three-day KCPE with 820,255 candidates will start on December 4. The council has hired 53,092 and 119,487 professionals to manage the KCSE and KCPE respectively.

Speaking at a media break fast briefing yesterday, Wasanga said the security personnel will provide security during the dispatch of examination materials to the 2,705 distribution centres across the country.

"This same team will escort the return of scripts to the council, provide surveillance as a measure to prevent examination irregularities at the 32, 343 exam centres across the country," he said. Senior deputy secretary in charge of examinations Edah Muiruri said each supervisor has been assigned two police officers, adding that car transporting the exams will have one chase car and two security officers. "In areas with security threats, the numbers are definitely higher," she said.

Tana River with 845 candidates and 256 of who are displaced candidates have been asked to go to the nearest school to do their exams.

Thirty eight KCSE candidates in the area will report to the DEO to organise where they will sit for the exams. Wasanga said CID and NSIS officers assigned to Knec brief him on a daily on the security situation including on the MRC threat in Mombasa.

He warned on cheating in exams saying the new Knec Act procribe a jail term of one to two years and a fine of between Sh1 million to Sh10 million for the culprits.

Despite the new penalities, Wasanga said some candidates in private schools in at the Coast have not attended classes this term claiming that they are waiting for 'Gomba' a corrupt name for exam leakage.

He said Mombasa is the "home" of some fraudsters who have been tampering with examinations in the past. Last year, North Eastern province was worst hit with results being cancelled over cheating.

Wasanga said the money is being collected under the guise of holding parties for candidates to try and compromise supervisors and invegilators.