Azimio La Umoja One Kenya leader Raila Odinga now claims the transfer of printing tender from a United Kingdom (UK) based firm to a local company is to blame for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations results irregularities.
Speaking during a press conference Wednesday, Odinga alleged that the tender revocation by the government was irregular and caused gaps in the process.
While indicating that the buck stopped with President William Ruto, he called for the formation of a taskforce to probe the matter.
"A task force comprising stakeholders in the Education sector needs to be established to investigate cheating in National Examinations as witnessed in the last two National KCPE and KCSE examinations," he stated.
"We have established that early this year ,the Kenya Kwanza administration suddenly and abruptly stopped this contact because the UK firm refused to give kickbacks. Without following any legal procurement processes, due diligence procedures and attention to examination timelines, the Kenya Kwanza administration awarded the KCPE and KCSE exam printing contract to a politically correct printing company based in Mombasa road." said Odinga.
Odinga further alleged that the Mombasa road based printing company lacked the capacity to print exam papers compelling it to outsource those services in India, a factor he maintains has compromised the integrity of the recently released KCPE examinations.
He warned that the prevailing factors risk interfering with the outcome of the ongoing KCSE examinations, calling on the formation of a taskforce to probe what he calls a rot in the education sector.
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"It has messed up the 2023 KCPE, and will likely find its way into KCSE whose marking is currently underway in a tense and uncertain environment," he added.
Currently, parents of some candidates who had issues with their KCPE results are in court seeking the court's indulgence to stop KNEC from using those results in the form one selection process. Over 9000 candidates had missed sitting the exams. Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu announced that a mapping exercise will be done across the country to identify candidates who missed out and are due for a special exam.
"To ensure that no candidate misses out in joining Form One from the final 2023 KCPE examination cohort, the Ministry of Education will conduct through mapping of any of those who may have failed to sit their examination this year in order to administer a Special Exam in January 2024," Machogu said.
