Western counties saw an improvement in this year's KCPE with the top pupil coming from Kakamega County.

Aggrey Wabuko of St Joseph Primary School led the region with 449 marks.

In Vihiga County, Moses Mudavadi Primary School Mululu produced the top candidate, Margaret Amwai with 441 marks.

In Bungoma, Nzoia Sugar Primary School topped the county when John Wanjohi Kiama scored 435 marks.

In neighbouring Busia, Anne Okware of Ebenezer Academy attained 436 marks.

Overall, there was an improvement in the performance of primary schools, especially in Kakamega, compared to the other three counties.

Private schools in the county performed better than their public counterparts in Kakamega, with Hill School taking four slots in the top 10.

St Mary's Mukumu Primary School is the only public school that produced a candidate in the top 10, with Agola Julian Maria attaining 432 marks.

Paul Oduor of Hill School emerged the second in the county with 443 marks, Owango Godfrey of Hill School with 439 marks, Ummbana Tanya of Hill School (437), Mcyoto Grace and Whitney Buluma of Booker Academy getting 436 marks, Igadwa Debi of Booker Academy (435), Saudi Victoria of Hill School (434, Alicia Sande of Fesbeth Academy (433), and Agola Julian Maria of Mukumu Primary and Claytone Opiyo of Fesbeth Academy tying to close the county's top 10 list with 432 marks.

Wabuko said he aspires to be a neurosurgeon.

"I expected to perform better in the examination but I had not imagined that I will be among the top in the whole country. I am thankful to God, my parents and teachers who guided me through. I look forward to studying neurosurgeon in future," said an elated Wabuko.

Parents, teachers and pupils Wednesday took celebrations over the good KCPE exam results to the streets of Kakamega town.

Teachers and learners of St Joseph Academy joined an Isikuti dance with the slogan "we lead the leaders" as their pupil topped the county.

Alicia Sande, the best student at Fesbeth Academy, said she was glad to have emerged the best and was looking forward to joining a national school.

Fesbeth Academy head teacher Daniel Anyanga said they had come up with a new strategy that helped his school to attain a mean score of 392 marks, an improvement from last year's 369.

"We had a new strategy for the year. We called it target setting strategy in teaching and testing methodologies and it has given us good results," said Mr Anyanga.

Thirty-two candidates at the institution scored 400 marks and above, with the last candidate getting 294 marks.

Kakamega's St Joseph Academy's last pupil had 360 marks while Booker Academy last candidate got 359.

In Vihiga, Margaret Amwai from Mululu emerged top with 441 marks. She was followed by Michael Maloya with 426, Emmanuel Lihanda (423), Diana Kadesa (422), and Daniel Olima (421).

In Bungoma, John Wanjohi of Nzoia Sugar Company Primary School topped the county with 435 marks.

The school performed better than Marell Academy which has been the county's academic giant.

At Marell Academy, the first candidate Amimo Emmanuel got 431 marks.

Christine Wanjala of Nzoia Sugar Company Primary School who got 430 marks said she had targeted 420.

In Busia, which had the highest cases of cheating, the top candidate Anne Okware of Ebenezer Academy had 436 marks.