The Cabinet Secretary for Education Prof George Magoha has directed examination officials to refrain from taking mobile phones to examination rooms.
CS Magoha was speaking in Nyeri when the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education was released to Nyeri Central. He urged security officers to arrest any examination officer who goes into examination rooms with their mobile phones.
“Nobody should enter the examination room with a mobile phone. This includes centre managers who must leave their phones in the offices,” said Prof George Magoha.
According to Magoha, the decision was made after some centre managers were caught with mobile phones having photos of the examinations a few minutes after the examination began.
“We found some centre managers taking images of the question paper about 39 minutes after the examination started. This is not acceptable and we are not going to take it lightly,” said Prof George Magoha.
Besides, CS Magoha further confirmed examinations had started across the country and all candidates including those from highly volatile areas said that they are safe until the last day.
On claims of pupils being shot, the CS assured that they were not true since the gunshots were more than three kilometres away. Besides, he added that the candidates are safe going to be safe in their schools.
“All the children who were supposed to do examinations yesterday did their examinations including those in areas threatened by insecurity. Security has been beefed up in the area and examinations will continue,” said Prof Magoha.
Nyeri officials called out the local administrators for coming late.
“If you find that you are getting lazy, step aside or we will push you aside…we have two million children to serve,” said CS Magoha.
“I am hoping that wherever I go, I will not have to wait for officers who are supposed to be field marshals to come. This is not acceptable. We will not take it. Senior government officials must arrive early enough to coordinate. Do not arrive late expecting someone else to do so on your behalf,” said CS Magoha.