How misprint of one letter dashed man’s hope of joining KDF

A misprint of one letter on a young man’s certificate made all the difference and dashed his ambitions of joining diciplined forces in the recently concluded recruitment.

Pascal Wanjare who sat for his form four exams in 2012 has been through turbulent times  since Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) issued him with a certificate with a slighly altered name.

The certificate seen by the Standard bares the name ‘Wanjake’ instead of Wanjare, an error that has proved grave for the young man as he continues to plead with KNEC to rectify it.

He was turned away during last month’s Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) recruitment at Mwatate, Taita Taveta county after failing to convince the officer in charge that he was the owner of the certificate.

“ It was the most frustrating moment. I wanted to give my all in defending the country but no one could listen to my side of story,” said distraughted Pascal.

A few days to the recruitment, his father who resides in Kiambu county had paid Sh 600 to EACL Air Waybill company to cater for transportation of a letter that was to be written by KNEC to District Commissioner of Mwatate informing him about the error.

His father said that the DC informed him that he never received such a letter.

Documents seen by The Standard indicate that his  father, Michael Mwenga, has visited several offices since las year including KNEC, office of ombudsman and anti corruption office to seek ways of rectifying the costly error.

Pascal, a former student of Ngami secondary school in Taita used the principal of the school who wrote a letter to the KNEC secretary on November 5, 2013 seeking for the rectification of the error. That was to be the beginning of a tumultous journey.

His father paid KNEC Sh 8000 to rectify the error on both his KCPE and KCSE certificate. He alleges that when the mistake appeared on the class eight certificate, KNEC assured him that the same would not surface again four years later.

Despite several visits to the KNEC offices, he says that he is tired of terse responses. He visited anti corruption offices and directed to the office of Ombudsman.

Document seen by The Standard show that the office acknolwedged the complain on september 9, 2015 but he is yet to recieive any feedback.

“KNEC should own up their mistake. Why should my son continue holding documents that cannot help him? This is setting my son against me. He thinks i have not done enough,” said the parent.