When Machogu released the KCSE exam results on January 20, he said the 1,146 students who obtained 'A' grade accounted for 0.13 per cent of all the 881,416 candidates.
In his statement, Machogu said that in the 2021 KCSE exam, 1,138 or 0.14 per cent of candidates had an A plain.
In last year's exam, the number of candidates with the minimum university entry qualification of grade C+ and above rose to 173,345 compared with 145,776 in 2021, the Cabinet secretary said.
The number of candidates with a mean grade of D+ and above in last year's exam stood at 522,588 compared with 442,251 in 2021.
While the quality of grades improved, Machogu said more boys scored the top 'A' grade (875) compared to girls (271).
"Candidates who scored A- were 4,445 boys and 1,962 females, while those who scored B+ were 9,578 boys and 6,104 girls," the Cabinet secretary said.
He added: "The number of male candidates who scored B was higher than that of female candidates. Out of the 31,303 who scored the grade, 17,783 were boys and 13,520 were girls."
Some 27,245 male candidates and 21,474 females scored B-, while 36,950 boys and 33,138 girls scored C+.
Statistics by the examinations body showed that out of the 95,154 candidates who scored C, 49,191 were girls while 45,963 were boys.
Of the total C- (minus) scored in the exam, 62,599 were female and 56,469 were male. Some 70,238 female candidates and 64,783 male candidates scored D+, while 79,935 girls and 75,545 boys managed 'D' grade.
But more boys scored 'E' grade, where out of 30,822 E's recorded, 18,062 were males and 12,760 were females.
Machogu said the number of candidates who got 'E' grade in 2022 declined significantly from 46,151 in 2021.
"This clearly leads us to conclude that most of the candidates scored grades of higher quality.
"All the remaining candidates are eligible to join Tvet institutions, teacher training colleges, medical training colleges and other tertiary learning institutions for various courses," he said.
Machogu said the government was keen to ensure that the credibility and authenticity of qualifications and certificates from education and training institutions remained of high quality.