Wednesday, December 7, 2023 -Speaking from Nairobi on Wednesday December 7, Mr. Raila Odinga flanked by his supporters said since 2016, the country has been on the path of major reforms in the education sector and notably in the management of national examinations only for this to be changed by the current regime of Kenya Kwanza.
According to Odinga, these reforms were intended to restore sanity to the examination process and maintain the dignity and integrity of education sector. They were meant to ensure that graduates at whatever level are recognized and respected across the world. Back in 2016, and following serious concerns about the management of national exams, the Government of Kenya identified a secure printing firm in the UK – Stephen Austin Printing Ltd. A Security printing firm that deals with several exams and other high stakes documents in different parts of the world.
“Kenyans will agree that in that period, sanity returned in the management of exams, with grades that reflected reality. “We have established that early this year, the Kenya Kwanza administration suddenly and abruptly stopped this contract just because the UK company refused to give kickbacks,” he remarked in his press statement today.
The Opposition said, without following any legal procurement processes, due diligence procedures, and attention to examination timelines, the Kenya Kwanza administration awarded the KCPE and KCSE exam printing contract to a politically-correct local company based on Mombasa Road in Nairobi. The government was advised that the Mombasa Road-based company did not have the capacity to print the exams and also ensure its security and integrity, especially on such short notice. Nobody would budge because there were kickbacks involved.
“We are aware that the Mombasa Road company then had to outsource the exam printing services from a company based in India, where the exams were printed in a hurry. We are also aware that the UK firm whose contract was canceled declined to provide codes to the many layers of security that had been encrypted to safeguard the integrity of both KCPE and KCSE. We believe this process, of a sudden change of printer and having them printed on short notice, is responsible for the disaster we have witnessed with respect to KCPE. The situation was worsened by the fact that in return for kickbacks, the procurement for relaying the results to the public using the short code 40054 was also taken away from the original provider and awarded on short notice and corruptly to a company that does not have the capacity to handle the same,” he added
This, Odinga said, led to the mess where the results received expensively using the short code were different from the one on the KNEC portal and sent to schools. It led to what KNEC has called misalignment of marks and grades. Grades in Science and Social Studies as well as Religious Studies were truncated. The system deployed could not produce the Plus and Minus signs.
Consequently, for the first time in our country, some children are in court, seeking to establish their true grades while the education ministry is admitting students to form one, including those still challenging the marks they were awarded.
“This impunity and corruption that is messing up the future of our young people are sanctioned from the highest offices in the land.
“We can today disclose that the mess in KCPE started as a tender war pitting various senior officials in the Ministry of Education against each other before eventually being taken over by an official much higher in government. The hunt for quick money has now taken the Kenya Kwanza tenderpreneurs from petroleum products and edible oils to exams. It has messed up the 2023 KCPE and will likely find its way into KCSE, whose marking is currently underway in a tense and uncertain environment,” further said Odinga.
Explaining why he has decided to speak out this mess, Raila said it is because of the increasing corruption enterprises in the government.
“We believe that devaluing the integrity of our exams and certificates presents an existential threat to our country, and we have to close ranks and deal with it dispassionately and professionally,” he also said.
To avoid subjecting learners to such confusion in future, Odinga has said the buck stops with the head of State and not his Cabinet as well as teachers.
Facebook Comments Box