Authorities have arrested 26 more people in connection with widespread malpractices in the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.
According to a media report, the fresh arrests bring the total number of individuals apprehended since the exams began to 71.
According to officials, those arrested in the latest operation include nine students, 15 examination officials, one school cook, and one civilian.
Oceania Junior Secondary School in Mombasa recorded the highest number of arrests in this round.
The individuals taken into custody include Edinah Furaha (centre manager), Omar Rashid Mzungu (invigilator), Collins Oduor Oteyo (invigilator), Steven Kimani (invigilator), Lucy Awino Odhiambo (invigilator), Mwanajuma Zami Chale (invigilator), and Lina Owiti (cook).
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In Bungoma County, several invigilators at St. Cecilia Girls High School were arrested. They have been identified as Winny Musamala, Mercy Loponi, Annete Oswani, Rose Barasa, and Charles Wafula.
Migori County also recorded cases of malpractice. At St. Anne’s Sunrise Girls High School, police arrested Bernard Otieno, the deputy centre manager, and George Oudo, an invigilator.
Meanwhile, at Agoro Sare Secondary School, invigilators James Nyasani Nyakundi and Peter Odhiambo Sima were taken into custody over suspected involvement in exam fraud.
Elsewhere in Bungoma County, a civilian identified as Alvin Nyongesa was arrested at Friends Kaptola Secondary School.
This comes weeks after the government activated round-the-clock monitoring of social media platforms as part of heightened security measures to prevent examination fraud.
Speaking on Wednesday, October 29, Interior Principal Secretary 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, 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.
Omollo 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, 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.
"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," he stated.
