By JEMEDARi Mwanawakiume
The confidential report released by the directorate of criminal investigations (DCI) has further revealed that the 2015 Kenya Certificate Secondary Examination leakage that led to the biggest number of exam cheats in the history of Kenyan examinations originated from one teacher in Mandera County.
According to a video viewed by the Daily Nation, the deputy head teacher from a school in Wargadud, on the border of Ethiopia and Kenya, approached police officers where the papers would be stored about four months in advance to hatch the plot on how they would leak the examinations.
“I realized that my students had not adequately covered the syllabus due to absence of teachers in the area after the wave of terrorism. I approached a policeman in the area who linked me up with the officer in charge of the armory at the police station where the exam papers would be stored,” explained the teacher.
In the video recording that had been done secretly, the teacher went on to explain that for KSh 60 000 a week, one of the police officers who breach the seals on the exam packages, take photos using an iPad, reseal them with special glue and sent it to the teacher using a memory card.
“I then resold the exams to all the 115 students at my school for a fee of KSh 5,000 per person. The head boy would collect the money, hand it over to another teacher before the money was handed to me,” added the teacher as quoted in the paper.
The police officer earned KSh 240,000 from leaking the examinations after he also showed the teacher how to break the seals on the exam packages.
The deputy had teacher added that he sent the leaked exam materials to a colleague in Nairobi who in return sent him KSh 200 000. In total, from all the transactions of selling the material, the deputy is said to have earned over KSh 1.5 million.
Also involved in the scam was a Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) student who transported leaked material to Nyamira County through private transportation paid for by the deputy teachers. He is said to have also earned millions of shillings.
The DCI report dated December 5, 2015 said that the teacher and his cohorts were arrested but are yet to be charged because they destroyed all the tools with which they used to leak the examinations, including burning the mobile phones and sim cards.
The JKUAT was arrested last week on Wednesday, March 23, 2016 but is yet to be arraigned in court.
The report also questioned the wisdom of storing exam materials in police custody as they were the main source of where leaks begun.
It also exposed the weakness of the seals placed on exam packages, explaining that they were not as secure as the Kenya National Examination Council officials assured the public that they were.
This was after the teacher was recorded unsealing a package, take out the exam papers and reseal it with no one the wiser.
The 2015 exam leakage that saw over 5 000 students have their results cancelled due to cheating led to the sacking of the KNEC officials as loopholes were discovered in the way the exam packages were handled.
A new board was recently appointed to oversee reforms in the examination council.
The previous board’s officials including CEO Joseph Kivilu, Ambia Noor (senior deputy secretary – examinations), Maundu Mantenzawa (deputy secretary – security), Thomas McKenzie (principal examination secretary) and Sarah Majani (senior deputy secretary – reprographics) were directed to record statements with the police over their role in the historic leakage scam.
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