Ten teachers from Pala Masogo Secondary School in Homa Bay County are spending the weekend behind bars after failing to post a Ksh 1 million cash bail each, following allegations of involvement in a KCSE exam cheating scheme. The teachers, including supervisors, were reportedly involved in an attempt to distribute answers for the KCSE Chemistry exam, intending to help students cheat. Police raided the school and confiscated photocopies of exam materials, leading to immediate arrests and formal charges.
This case has sparked alarm within the education sector, prompting a stern warning from Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba. The Ministry of Education has since increased oversight, deploying senior officials to examination centers nationwide to prevent further incidents of malpractice. Ogamba emphasized that the government’s zero-tolerance policy means that anyone caught in similar activities will face prosecution without exception.
The crackdown comes at a time of heightened scrutiny surrounding the KCSE exams, with authorities working to combat examination malpractice and maintain the credibility of the national assessment. In a separate but related case, officials recently investigated similar cheating suspicions at Ebubere Secondary in Mumias East. The tragic death of a candidate in Meru, just as exams began, has added to the tense environment surrounding this year’s exams Kenyans LiveNow Africa.
This high-profile case at Pala Masogo Secondary underscores ongoing challenges in enforcing exam integrity and the lengths to which the government is willing to go to preserve fairness for the nearly 965,000 students sitting for the KCSE exams.
