Exposure of KNEC and MoE Officials for Facilitating Exam Leakages
Exposure of KNEC and MoE Officials for Facilitating Exam Leakages. Following the release of additional material that revealed that KNEC and Ministry of Education officials may have plotted to leak national exams in order to make money, those officials have come under scrutiny.
The Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) were recently contacted by legislators, who learned that government personnel had set up social media identities to share exam questions for financial gain.
A total of 49 social media profiles were created and made active in order to facilitate the distribution of exam materials.
Following the meeting, Julius Melly, the chair of the education committee of the National Assembly, said that the DCI had named specific KNEC and CAK officials as being involved in exam leaks.
Since the committee would be presenting its findings to Parliament at the end of the month, Melly kept their identities for the time being but promised to divulge them then.
Melly made a point of stating that the material revealed in the closed-door meeting exposed influential people and revealed significant problems in the exam system.
“We now have crucial details regarding a number of Ministry of Education departments. We now know how people developed social media sites and how they disseminated information, the speaker stated.
He continued by saying that the committee intended to make important recommendations on the administration, supervision, and penalties for exam leaks, early disclosure, collaboration, and impersonation.
“The DCI provided us with new information about the crime’s perpetrators. They gave examples of people who spent a lot of money creating social media accounts and running many social media websites. Melly stated, “We were informed of the financial transactions that took place via M-PESA and bank accounts that eventually benefited these people.
In the course of the conversation, it was learned that, out of the 49 accounts, 22 Facebook accounts and 13 Telegram accounts were registered in the name of KNEC, and the rest accounts belonged to various individuals.
KNEC and Ministry Representatives Charged With Facilitating Exam Leaks
Still active are the fake Telegram accounts “knecleakage2022,” “KNEC EXAMS,” “kncep,” and “kcseleaks001,” among others. Among the accounts that have been disabled are “Kneclkg,” “KCSEANDKCPE EXAMS,” “Kcse2021leaks,” and “knecpapers22.”
Some of the Facebook groups linked to the wrongdoing include “KNEC PAST papers,” “kcse Past Papers And Marking Schemes,” “KNEC Standard Notes and Past Papers -TVET,” and “KCSE Leakage,” among others.
Early in December of the previous year, David Njengere, the CEO of KNEC, expressed concern about the early release of national examination papers on social media sites. He requested assistance in getting rid of Facebook groups and Telegram channels that were involved in exam fraud.
Njengere met with the authorities and communicated with them to establish a multi-agency team made up of the Council, CAK, and the ICT authority to address this kind of malpractice.
Njengere claims that “some dishonest people have made it a habit of accessing examination papers after they have been collected from the containers and taking photos to share them on social media platforms.”
Ezra Chiloba, the CEO of CAK, emphasized the challenges in dealing with platforms like Telegram and Signal because they provided strong end-to-end encryption, self-destructing messages, and anonymous registration options, making it difficult to identify people who were engaged in these illegal activities.