KNEC, Ministry Officials Exposed For Aiding Exam Leakages
Officials from the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education have come under fire after new information suggested that they may have planned to leak national tests in order to profit financially.
In a recent meeting with the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK), lawmakers discovered that government employees had created social media profiles to distribute exam questions for financial benefit.
To make it easier to distribute exam materials, a total of 49 social media profiles were made and made active.
After the meeting, Julius Melly, the chairman of the National Assembly’s education committee, stated that the DCI had identified certain KNEC and CAK officials as being complicit in exam leaks.
Melly withheld their identities for the time being, but vowed to reveal them before the month was over, when the committee would present its conclusions to Parliament.
Melly emphasised that the information presented in the closed-door meeting exposed powerful individuals and demonstrated serious flaws in the exam system.
“We have learned important information about numerous departments in the Ministry of Education. We have learned about the methods people used to create social media platforms and the information they shared,” he said.
He added that the committee planned to suggest significant changes to how tests are managed, supervised, and punished for leaks, early disclosure of exams, collaboration, and impersonation.
“The DCI gave us more details on the perpetrators of the crime. They cited examples of people who created social media sites and operated numerous accounts while spending a lot of money. We were made aware of the financial dealings that occurred via M-PESA and bank accounts that ultimately benefited these people, Melly said.
Out of the 49 accounts, it was discovered during the discussion that 22 Facebook accounts and 13 Telegram accounts were registered under the name of KNEC, while the remaining accounts belonged to various people.
KNEC, Ministry Officials Exposed For Aiding Exam Leakages
The bogus Telegram accounts “knecleakage2022,” “KNEC EXAMS,” “kncep,” and “kcseleaks001,” among others, are still operational. The deactivated accounts include “Kneclkg,” “KCSEANDKCPE EXAMS,” “Kcse2021leaks,” and “knecpapers22.”
“KNEC PAST papers,” “kcse Past Papers And Marking Schemes,” “KNEC Standard Notes and Past Papers -TVET,” and “KCSE Leakage,” among other accounts, are some of the Facebook pages that are implicated in the misconduct.
David Njengere, the CEO of KNEC, voiced worry regarding the early publication of national examination papers on social media platforms in early December of the previous year. He asked for help in removing Telegram channels and Facebook groups that were engaged in exam fraud.
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To create a multi-agency team made up of the Council, CAK, and the ICT authorities to tackle this type of malpractice, Njengere met with the authorities and corresponded with them.
According to Njengere, “some dishonest people have made it a habit of accessing exam papers after they have been collected from the containers and taking photos to share them on social media platforms.”
The CEO of CAK, Ezra Chiloba, emphasised the difficulties in dealing with platforms like Telegram and Signal because they offered robust end-to-end encryption, self-destructing messages, and anonymous registration options, making it challenging to identify people involved in these illegal activities.
