Opposition Leader Raila Odinga has exposed details on how tender tussles in the education ministry led to the irregularities witnessed in the 2023 KCPE results.
Addressing the issue, Odinga explained that since 2016, Kenya has been using the services of a UK-based company called Stephen Austin Printing Ltd to print exam papers for learners. However, he says, in 2023, the government terminated its contract with the company after refusing to give kickbacks.
“We have established that early this year, the Kenya Kwanza administration suddenly and abruptly stopped this contract just because the UK company refused to give kickbacks,” Odinga said.
Odinga claims that after the contract termination, the ministry of education decided to use a Mombasa Road firm to print the exam papers.
“Without following any legal procurement processes, due diligence procedures, and attention to examination timelines, the Kenya Kwanza administration awarded the KCPE and KCSE exam printing contract to a company based on Mombasa Road in Nairobi,” he said.
Odinga says the government was advised against choosing the Mombasa Road-based company because it did not have the capacity to print the exams and ensure its security and integrity, especially on such short notice, but nobody listened.
Odinga added that the Mombasa Road company then had to outsource the exam printing services from a company based in India, where the exams were printed in a hurry.
Odinga believes that the sudden change of printer and having them printed on short notice is responsible for the issues witnessed in KCPE results.
He also added that “The situation was worsened by the fact that in return for kickbacks, the procurement for relaying the results to the public using the short code 40054 was also taken away from the original provider and awarded on short notice and corruptly to a company that does not have the capacity to handle the same.”
As some learners celebrated impeccable KCPE results in November, others were distraught over getting lower marks than expected. There was also a mismatch of Kiswahili and Kenya Sign Language results for some learners.
Odinga has written to key education stakeholders in the country in a bid to tackle the mess that occured on in the ministry of education.
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