The government has activated round-the-clock monitoring of social media platforms as part of heightened security measures to prevent examination fraud and digital crimes during the ongoing national assessments.
Speaking on Wednesday, October 29, Internal Security Principal Secretary Dr. Raymond Omollo revealed that a multi-agency team is conducting 24-hour surveillance on social media platforms to curb fake exam leaks and digital fraud.
The National Command Centre, domiciled at the ministry, has been fully activated to coordinate real-time response efforts and deter criminals’ intent on compromising the integrity of national examinations.
During a visit to a distribution center in Starehe sub-county, where examination papers were being issued to center managers, PS Omollo expressed satisfaction with the smooth running of the assessments so far.
"Overall, since the exercise, these examinations or assessments began, we have not had any major incidents worth worrying about, and this is because of the good coordination and collaboration that has happened between all the players, starting with the Ministry of Education, who are actually the primary owners of the assessment that is going on," he stated.
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The PS disclosed that over 600 examination containers have been spread across sub-counties nationwide, with Sub-County Directors of Education working alongside Sub-County Security and Intelligence Committees to ensure smooth operations.
On social media monitoring, PS Omollo confirmed that the government is tracking individuals and pages pretending to share examination information while defrauding unsuspecting parents, teachers, and students.
"We have the team from ICT, of course we are also looking at issues of just the use of social media to try to pretend where people are pretending to be sharing information and even collecting money from unsuspecting whether it's parents, whether it's teachers, whether it's students," he stated.
"Where we've found breaches or where we will come across those breaches, we'll be able to act appropriately, but just to give the assurance to all the students and the teachers that the preparations that are in place are good enough to ensure that we don't mess with or interfere with the integrity of the examinations."
The PS acknowledged that while there have been isolated incidents, including delayed examination paper distribution in flood-affected areas and a few cases of students falling sick, the teams have worked around the clock to ensure the integrity of the assessments is not compromised.
"We had a case in Tana River yesterday, which again was resolved. The short rains have just begun, so we expect that we will still be able to ensure that the exams get to the schools in good time because we also have backup arrangements for where we will be forced to do the airlifting of the examinations," he explained.
The government has deployed multiple security layers for the national examinations, with officers from the National Police Service backing up Ministry of Education officials, invigilators, and center managers at the sub-county level.
Earlier, the Ministry of Education deployed a multisectoral team to curb cheating in the ongoing Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) exams.
Basic Education PS Julius Bitok said the team is working to ensure the exams are administered professionally and remain fraud-free.
"We have assembled a multisectoral team that is working around the clock to ensure the exam is administered professionally by eliminating opportunities for those who may want to indulge in cheating and other malpractices," Bitok stated.
The PS urged continued vigilance from all officers involved in the examinations, emphasizing that any irregularities should be reported immediately.
"We are encouraging all our stakeholders, if they see anything unusual, to report it immediately. Vigilance is key to maintaining integrity and ensuring fairness for every learner," he said.
The KPSEA and KJSEA exams began on Monday, October 27. The KPSEA is scheduled to end on Wednesday, October 29, while the KJSEA will conclude on November 3.
The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams began on October 21 and will run until November 21, 2025.
