NAROBI, Kenya, Apr 13 – Education Cabinet Secretary, Ezekiel Machogu has dismissed claims that there was cheating in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.
Speaking on Thursday during the Parliamentary Committee meeting on alleged malpractices in the 2022 KCSE exams, Machogu said that there has been widespread misinformation and false narratives targeting the results especially in Kisii and Nyamira counties.
‘’Misleading information has been peddled through the mainstream and social media to drive particular narratives and to profile certain schools and counties achieving extraordinary scores, Kisii and Nyamira counties have been the main target,’’ he said.
The Education Cabinet Secretary said that facts and figures had been ignored on the issue stating that a quick glance on the results does not support the propaganda.
‘’Kisii and Nyamira counties actually had the least number of Grade A’s in the Nyanza Region, Siaya county had the highest number of As in the Nyanza Region, with 72, followed by Homa bay and Migori with 62 and Kisumu with 59. Kisii was the last county with 30 As,’’ he stated.
Additionally, he said that the commentary and media reports in the 2022 KCSE had focused on the fact of some schools marking an improvement of more than +2 in their performances.
‘’Schools marking an improvement of more than +2 in their performance has been an effort to portray this as unusual and therefore evidence of irregularities. This hypothesis is unfounded and historically erroneous,’’ Machogu said.
Moreover, the Education Cabinet Secretary urged the members to note that the Improvement of a school’s mean score by a +2 deviation and above is not unique to the year 2022.
‘’There were similar cases recorded in the previous years. For instance, in 2017, Sing’ore Girls from Elgeyo Marakwet County recorded a deviation of +5.32. In 2019, Kapkenda Girls also in Elgeyo Marakwet County recorded a deviation of +4.15,’’ he said.
This news comes a month after the Education Committee conducted a public inquiry into the allegations to determine the objectivity of the claims and make recommendations.
