Examination results for 1,180 candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) last year have been cancelled after they were found to have engaged in malpractices.
The irregularities included impersonation, smuggling of unauthorised materials into examination rooms, collusion between students and teachers, and the use of mobile phones.
While releasing the 2025 KCSE results yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba noted that the Ministry of Education had concluded investigations on all reported cases of exam malpractice.
“Consequently, and in line with the applicable law and regulations, examination results of 1,180 candidates have been cancelled,” he said.
The number is 40 per cent higher than the 840 candidates whose results were cancelled last year for involvement in exam malpractice.
Official data shows that in addition, the results of 2,899 other 2024 KCSE candidates suspected of being involved in irregularities were withheld, pending investigations by the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec).
Knec Chief Executive Dr David Njeng’ere noted that that sneaking in of mobile phones into the examination centres topped the list of cheating cases. He blamed some teachers for complicity in examination cheating.
Knec rules require that everyone — including candidates, invigilators, security personnel, and even support staff such as cooks — surrender their mobile phones upon entry at the examination centre to avoid early exposure of exams.
“In 99.99 per cent of cases, teachers are involved in examination malpractice, with only 0.01 percent of incidents resulting from candidates acting on their own by bringing unauthorized materials,” said Dr Njeng’ere.
For the KCSE, the examination council engaged 54,782 invigilators who worked under 10,765 centre managers across the country.
Apart from deploying primary school teachers to ensure the integrity of the examinations, Knec introduced smart padlocks to enhance the security of examination materials and curb early exposure of the papers.
“Why would the school not be able to tell that a candidate is carrying a phone and yet there is thorough frisking by the supervisors and invigilators?” the CEO posed.
He noted that chances are high that the culprits were assisted by the teachers given that Form One, Form Two and Form Three students were away from school at the time of sitting the 2025 KCSE.
