Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance coalition party leader Raila Odinga claims the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations were printed along Mombasa Road.
The former prime minister on Wednesday alleged that the Kenya Kwanza government cancelled an exam printing tender awarded to a United Kingdom-based firm in favour of the local firm.
According to the ODM leader, the foreign company lost the tender after it failed to bribe government officials.
“We’ve established that early this year the government abruptly stopped this contract because the UK company refused to give kickbacks. Without following any legal process, the KK awarded the KCPE contract to a politically connected local company based in Mombasa Road in Nairobi,” said Raila.
“The government was advised that the local company could not print the exams and ensure its security, especially on short notice. Nobody would budge because there were kickbacks involved.”
Read: KNEC Advises KCPE Candidates to File Queries Over Results In 30 Days
Further, the opposition chief revealed that the local firm outsourced from an Indian company due to time constraints.
“We are also aware that the UK firm declined to provide codes to the many layers of security that had been encrypted to safeguard the integrity of national exams. We believe this process is responsible for the disaster witnessed in the KCPE results,” he added.
Raila alleged that the procurement for relaying the results to the public using the short code 40054 was awarded to another service provider hence the relaying of wrong marks.
“This led to the mess where the results received expensively using the short code were different from the ones on the KNEC portal and sent to schools. It led to what KNEC has called misalignment of marks and grades,” he stated.
He added that the results received using the short code were different from the ones on the KNEC portal and sent to schools.
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Azimio boss said he has as a result written to the DCI and 12 other stakeholders including religious organizations and the teacher unions to ensure the integrity of national examinations is restored.
“We believe that devaluing the integrity of our exams and certificates presents an existential threat to our country and we have to close ranks and deal with it dispassionately and professionally,” he said.
The former prime minister has written to; the Catholic Bishops Conference, the National Council of Churches of Kenya, the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Kenya Secondary School Heads Association, Primary School Head Teachers association, Kenya National Union of Teachers, and the Law Society of Kenya.
Others are the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, National Parents Association, Kenya Private Schools Association, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Federation of Kenya Employers.
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