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Ezekiel Machogu, the Education Cabinet Secretary has revealed that Kisii and Nyamira counties had only 81 grade A plains across the country.
Machogu blasted his critics after allegations of massive cheating during the 2022 KCSE exam surfaced.
“Don’t profile communities saying because the Cabinet Secretary comes from this region they passed. If we were to rate counties then Nyamira would be number 40,” the CS said during an event on Friday.
After the release of 2022 KCSE results, a flurry of questions was raised over alleged cheating in Kisii and Nyamira.
Machogu now says Nairobi and Kiambu counties had the highest number of As and not his backyard.
“Kisii had 51, Nyamira had 30, making it 81. In Nyanza, Siaya has 72, Migori 61, Kisumu 59 and Homa Bay 47,” he said.
Despite the CS insisting that there was no cheating witnessed during the exam, several stakeholders raised questions.
“Nyambaria which has featured a lot is a national school. It had 28 As and when compared to other national schools there is nothing outrageous,” he said.
Netizens and stakeholders questioned how Nyambaria High School rose to scoring a mean score of 10.8.
“In the country Nyambaria did not have the highest As, it is Mangu High School. The principal at Nyambaria was formally at Maranda High and he is doing a good job,” he said.
The CS also downplayed critics who were calling for mass cancelling of the KCSE results, saying the threshold of evidence is not compelling.
“Mangu had 82 As, Maranda- 68, Kapsabet- 52, Kaanga- 49, Maseno 48, Kenya High 41, St Anthony Kitale 41, Alliance Girls 39, and Nairobi School 39,” he said.
He faulted former Education CS Fred Matiangi for what he termed as declining exam standards.
Despite the public celebrating that Matiang’i curbed cheating,Machogu said the situation only worsened.
“The 2016 number of As was 141 out of 571,161 representing 0.02 percent. This was a massive failure by all standards,” he said.
In the results, Nyambaria High from Nyamira county and Cardinal Otunga from Kisii shocked giants by posting mean scores of 10.89 and 10.76, respectively.
But it was Mobamba High School also in Nyamira raised more eyebrows after improving from a mean score of 5.1 in 2021 to 9.2 in the 2022 exam, a deviation of plus 4.1.
In the 2021 exam, Nyambaria had four A plain grades and 79 students scoring A- (minus). Those figures more than doubled in 2022 with A plain grades jumping to 28 and students scoring A- (minus) increasing to 383. The mean score also jumped from 9.3 in 2021 to 10.9 in 2022.
Nyabite D.O.K in nearby Kisii county posted a jump of 3.5 in its means core from 5.1 in 2021 to 8.6 in 2022.
National Assembly Education Committee chairman Julius Melly said MPs were keenly following the matter.
He said the lawmakers will undertake a complete analysis of the results and the whole process, starting with the setting, where the papers were kept, the security, invigilation, marking and even release.
“We will also find out from the schools how their results have been including previous internal exams and mock exam. We have been teachers at one point and so we know and understand these things,” the Tinderet MP said.
Out of 881,416 KCSE exam candidates, only 1,146 attained a mean grade of A plain.