A section of Kenyan leaders has poked holes in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results announced on Friday, January 20, 2023.
The leaders drawn from various parts of the country claim the results posted by some schools may not be genuine even as celebrations continue in the institutions that recorded a stellar performance, upsetting seasoned giants which have dominated the list of top schools for years.
David Osiany, the former Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) for the Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and Enterprise Development, said something doesn't add up about the results.
"I am looking at the KCSE results and I have more questions than answers. Something doesn’t add up. Anyway… Yaliyondwele sipite. Wacha ninyamase (sic)," Osiany said in a tweet hours after the announcement of the results on Friday.
I am looking at the KCSE results and I have more questions than answers. Something doesn’t add up. Anyway… Yaliyondwele sipite. Wacha ninyamaSe 🤐🤐🤐.— 🇰🇪 David Osiany, HSC (@DavidOsiany) January 20, 2023
In another tweet shared on Sunday, Osiany alluded that some of the schools that posted impressive results may have cheated on their way to the top, adding that there is "honour in honesty".
He congratulated those students who "may not have posted the fake As", saying whichever grade they got, "it will pay off in the long run".
"There is honour in honesty. Congratulations to the KCSE students who may not have posted the fake As, but genuinely earned their B, C or even D. It’s honourable to know that your result is from genuine effort. I promise you, it will pay off in the long run," the former CAS said.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale, while referring to claims that more than 900 candidates of the 1,446 who scored the coveted 'A' grade come from the Kisii region, said he hopes that the allegations of cheating are just mere allegations.
"We hope the emerging allegations of cheating in the 2022 KCSE are just that, i.e., mere allegations. 'The collapse of the education system is the collapse of a nation,'" he said while quoting a statement by former South African President Nelson Mandela.
We hope the emerging allegations of cheating in the 2022 KCSE are just that, i.e., mere allegations.
"the collapse of the education system is the collapse of a nation" pic.twitter.com/uUnRoPL4tm— Dr Boni Khalwale, CBS (@KBonimtetezi) January 21, 2023
On his part, Nairobi's Director of Health Services Ouma Oluga said something is "foul" with the results.
"Something is foul with the 2022 KCSE results. End of story!" the former Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists Dentists Union (KMPDU) said.
In the results announced by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, schools from the Nyanza region, particularly, Kisii appeared to have performed better than institutions from other areas.
While the ministry didn't rank the schools in last year's exam, it has been established that Nyambaria High School from Nyamira county topped nationally after attaining a mean score of 10.89, a significant improvement from 2021's performance of 9.31.
The school floored other powerhouses including Mangu High, Kapsabet High, Alliance Boys and Kenya High to capture the nation's attention on Friday.
The 2022 class performed exceptionally well with 28 students scoring A plains. All the 488 students who wrote exams at the school scored a B and above and qualified to join university.
Cardinal Otunga High School, located in the neighbouring county of Kisii, also had a stellar performance after posting a mean score of 10.76 to emerge as the second-best school nationally.
The school, which had a mean score of 7.44 in 2021, also took all its 330 students to university.
Several other schools from Nyamira and Kisii counties posted a mean score of between 9 and 10.
For instance, Mobamba High School in Nyamira which had 348 candidates obtained a mean score of 9.28 from 5.21 in 2021.
St. Pauls Igonga, which had a mean score of 6.2 in the last exam, also recorded a significant improvement in 2022 after scoring 10.26.
The principals in the respective schools have attributed the success to teamwork, discipline and hard work.
“This is not a mere achievement; it has been a long wait getting the school to regain its lost glory," Cardinal Otunga's Chief Principal Chispinus Owino said.
Nyambaria Boys High School Principal Charles Onyari said: “I really thank all the candidates of last year for the results that they have posted, and we shall always remember them because it has gone into history. This is the first time this school has recorded that mean.”
A total of 881,416 candidates sat for the 2022 KCSE exams. Out of these 443,644 were male while 437,772 were female.
A total of 1,146 candidates obtained an overall grade of A plain, representing 0.13 per cent of the candidates who sat for the KCSE examination in November last year.
Of those who scored A plain, 875 were male while 271 were female.
The number of top scorers increased by 308 compared to 1,138 candidates who scored A plain in 2021.
Some 6,407 candidates scored A- (minus) in the 2022 exams compared to 5,973 candidates who obtained A- in 2021.
On the other hand, CS Machogu said on Friday that the number of candidates with minimum university entry qualification of Grade C+ and above rose to 173,345 (19.03%) in the year 2022 KCSE examination compared to 145,776 (17.55%) in 2021.
The number of candidates with a mean grade D+ and above in the 2022 KCSE Examination is 522,588 (59.14%) compared with 442,251 (53.29%) in 2021.
The CS also noted that the number of students who scored grade E in 2022 declined significantly to 30,822 (3.49%) despite the increase in candidature, compared with 46,151 (5.56%) in 2021.
"This clearly leads us to conclude that most of the candidates scored grades of higher quality. Most significantly, all the remaining candidates are legible to join TVET institutions, Teacher Training Colleges, Medical Training Colleges and other tertiary learning institutions for various courses," the CS said.
Machogu said there were no irregularities in the 2022 KCSE exam, insisting that the Ministry of Education devised various mechanisms to curb cheating.
