Senate Opens a Probe into Alleged Cheating in 2022 KCSE Exam

The Senate Education Committee has opened a probe into allegations of massive cheating in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam.

Murang’a Senator Joe Nyutu, who chairs the committee, said the probe was prompted by complaints that some schools from one region recorded a sudden spike in the number of candidates scoring grade A.

"We are investigating whether there was leakage. We have seen queries by Kenyans on social media but we urge them to be patient. We want to ascertain the truth," he said.

"It is very easy to know whether there was cheating in exams. You can tell if candidates give the same answers. All human beings cannot think the same," he added. 

Senator Nyutu further pointed out that there are serious concerns about some schools posting an ‘abnormal’ improvement in the exam.

"The abnormal curve is also raising questions. A school cannot have a mean grade of 5 and then all of a sudden shoot to 9. After the probe we will issue our report,” he said.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, who released the exam’s results last Friday, dismissed claims that the exams were leaked in favor of certain schools in the Nyanza region.

Machogu said 173,345 out of the 881,416 candidates who sat last year’s KCSE exam attained the minimum university entry grade of C+ and above compared to 145,776 in 2021.

The number of candidates who scored grade A increased to 1,146 candidates from 1,138 in the 2021 examination.

6,407 candidates scored a mean grade of A-, 15,682 attained B+, 31,303 scored B, 48,719 B- while 70,088 candidates obtained C+.

A total of 522,588 candidates scored grade D+ and above while the number of students with grade E declined to 30,822 compared to 46,151 in 2021.