he owner of a private secondary school was arrested on Monday after an impostor was found sitting a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education paper on behalf of a student.

Strangely, the male impostor and the female student had never attended the private secondary school in Nyamaiya, Kisii.

They were given index numbers following each other and had written two English papers, mathematics and Kiswahili before their trick was discovered by an invigilator as they were sitting the Chemistry paper.

The two ‘candidates’ answered questions separately but exchanged their scripts on which they wrote their names.

The invigilators noticed that the two did not write their names and index numbers before starting the exam. After the exam, they would exchange answer sheets and put down their names.

The impostor confessed he was paid Sh5,000 and was to get Sh25,000 after the exam from the girl’s father. The school owner jumped out of an office widow into a maize field but was arrested later. The two suspects escaped in the confusion.

The impostor sat his exam in Manga, Kitutu Masaba constituency last year and scored a B+ using a different name from the one he registered under this year. He is waiting to join university. The female candidate sat her exam in 2007 and obtained a D+ and is working for a private company in Nairobi’s industrial area.

Local education officer Hassan Duale said: “This school is giving us a bad name in Kisii. Results of one student was cancelled in the same school last year after he was found with a mobile phone in exam room.”

The incident comes a day after Education minister, Prof Sam Ongeri, praised Kenyan teachers and the Kenya National Examination Council for drastically reducing exam irregularities this year.