DCI Unearth the tricks top government officials use to leak 2021 KCSE national examination after four more suspects were caught.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) has unearthed the tricks that cartels use to pre-access the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE) exam papers.
In a statement shared on Sunday, March 20, the DCI noted that the syndicate was being assisted by unscrupulous county government officials as well as principals.
“Despite concerted efforts to maintain the integrity of the conduct of examinations by the Ministry of Education under the leadership of Cabinet Secretary and KNEC officials, efforts are being jeopardized by crooked government officials at the county level.
“In some parts of the country a wide web of fraudsters including school heads, security agents, parents and college students have conspired to give an unfair advantage to lazy students over their counterparts, who worked hard and prepared for their examinations. . did,” read. statement in part.
The agency further revealed that some test containers were opened a few hours before the scheduled time and university students were hired to answer candidates appearing for the national examination.
“In some instances, examination containers are opened a few hours before the stipulated time for supply of examination papers to university and college students, so that the answers can be developed later to be sold to the candidates,” the statement said.
After a week-long search by the DCI, four suspects belonging to the syndicate were arrested. All four are students of different universities.
One of the students was arrested while he was busy administering Paper 2 of English and Paper 1 of Chemistry to the students of Silibwet and Saitoito secondary schools in Molo through his WhatsApp group with 70 members.
According to the detectives, the suspect was charging Ksh500 per paper and also belonged to a Telegram group of 17,000. The student had a mobile money account as well as a bank account for seamless transactions.“In order to hide his identity, the SIM card he was using was registered using the identity details of Evans Kiprono.”
It is at Rongo University where a wide syndicate of exam fraudsters exists, the Telegram group has among other groups a ‘black group’ created under the name ‘Bailing Out’,” the statement said.
A network of university students was recruited to answer the stolen exams which would later be shared with some of the candidates.
“It has also been learned from the relentless efforts of the spies that the syndicate also operates an account (of a popular bank) where candidates are asked to deposit a concessional rate of Rs 5,000 per paper or Rs 20,000 for the entire paper. examination. is going,” the DCI said.
The search is on to trace the mastermind of the accounts. Since the commencement of the KCSE exam almost two weeks ago, tens of cases of malpractices have been reported across the country, with education CS professor George Magoha touting mobile phones as the key devices used by students, teachers and other officials.
