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KCSE results: Let schools seek justice

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Published on Monday, 04 June 2007 04:41

I am calling on the governing board of the Kisii School, whose 197 students’ exam results were arbitrarily cancelled, to quickly move to court against the action of the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) on the following grounds: First, Knec cannot be entrusted with the judgment on the conduct of the examinations in the school without giving the students a hearing. The investigations that were carried out to get to Knec’s decision were not public — no arrests of invigilators, supervisors, teachers, the principal or any alleged accomplices were made. There is therefore no material evidence to warrant the colossal decision to be effected by the examinations body. Clearly the rules of natural justice have been trampled upon with abandon. Second, the methodology that was used by the examining body to conclude that cheating did occur is not beyond reproach. The question that arises is whether the method is inducted to all schools that sat the KCSE or it was only in the particular school. I demand to know whether the schools that perform well are all suspected to have cheated or it is this particular one that is not expected to do well? Clearly the issue of a constitutional nature here is one to do with discrimination. Knec stands accused of discriminating against the students of the condemned school. The most significant constitutional matter in the incident is to do with abuse of process. It is now established the world over that a felony committed by one, 10 or even 100 (assuming that Knec will actually prove that a felony was committed in this case) cannot put others who did not do it in jeopardy under any law. Knec, as a statutory body, cannot sit pretty with no arrests and condemn the future of nearly 200 students and the reputation of a whole institution in blanket condemnation and then walk away under the cover of a ministerial statement. No one should be punished for the alleged mistake of others. Knec must name the students it suspects cheated in the examination, shortlist the accomplices and prosecute them in a court of law. Anything short of that is unacceptable and I cannot avoid seeing a systematic, choreographed and sustained attempt at victimisation, profiling and slander against particular regions in the country. I hesitate to rule out malice in this case. For such an incident to provide opportunity for reforms and better systems, the examinations body should be prosecuted for failure to discharge its duties. And as if that is not enough, Knec turns to the bizarre action of nullifying examination results of all the 197 students who may, after all, be innocent. In a country that has unfortunately institutionalized ethnic discrimination and bigotry, this time around Knec must show that cheating in the exams did actually happen and that there were officials who witnessed the act. It must also show that it is capable of meritorious conduct and can discharge its duties accordingly. It must also showthat the methodologies it applied were identical across the board and not special for some three districts only. It is publicly known that since the late minister Z.T. Onyonka (God rest his soul in peace) made the unfortunate remarks that a Kisii school cheated in exams in the 1980s, Knec has overreacted, but it cannot show what it has done to curb the malpractice. Is it possible that the districts on the spotlight can perpetually cheat knowing very well that they are being watched? Is it possible that Knec has a policy of victimization or skewed administration to prove a point as regards the three districts?