Headteacher, supervisor and two invigilators arraigned over exam irregularities

A police officer steps into a container used for storing examination materials in Kisumu Central. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

A headteacher, supervisor, and two invigilators will spend 10 days at Kamagambo Police Station after they were remanded by a Rongo court over exam irregularities.

Francis Akoth, the headteacher who was acting as Rongo Secondary School's center manager, supervisor Job Mamayi, invigilators; Florence Auma and George Magambo Wednesday appeared before Senior Resident Magistrate Raymond Langat.

The magistrate ordered the four be remanded pending arraignment as investigations into alleged inappropriate conduct by the officials continued.

This was after the state counsel asked for more time to investigate the matter and the four remanded to prevent interference with the investigation process.

According to the counsel, the four would interfere with key witnesses, who are learners at the exam center, if released.

The counsel noted that witness statements that had been recorded together with submissions of recovered materials were to be taken for forensic analysis.

A miscellaneous application read in court noted that DCI officers arrested the four suspects on Tuesday at 3pm.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Tuesday said an invigilator, who was among the first to be arrested on suspicion of leaking the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) to candidates ahead of the scheduled time, will face criminal charges.

According to the Education CS, the malpractice happened between the period when the examination papers left the distribution centre and when they arrived at the examination centre.

“In the current circumstances, unprofessional examination officials shared the questions with targeted candidates before exam start-time,” Prof Magoha said.

Early Learning and Basic Education PS Dr Julius Jwan also revealed that they were keenly monitoring some schools over reports of planned exam irregularities to ensure the ministry eliminates all loopholes that would lead to cheating.

The case will be mentioned on April 9.