Why Ruto Cancelled UK Tender For Printing KCPE Exams, Turned To Mombasa Road- Raila

Azimio la Umoja leader, Raila Odinga attributed the series of anomalies witnessed in the release of the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results to a deal President William Ruto had called off with a firm based in the United Kingdom (UK).

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, December 6, Raila made public the blunders by President Ruto's administration, claiming that it had cancelled the tender with the firm that was initially responsible for printing the exams because it did not offer bribes to the government in return.

The former Prime Minister claimed that this is a matter that forced the government to shift tact to a Mombasa Road-based firm which it awarded the tender, despite being incapable of printing the exams in a short time.

"We've established that early this year the KK government suddenly and 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."

"The government was advised that the local company did not have the capacity to print the exams and ensure its security and integrity, especially on such short notice. Nobody would budge because there were kickbacks involved," Raila revealed.

Raila then disclosed that the company had to outsource exam printing services from a company based in India where the exam papers were printed in a hurry to adhere to tight deadlines.

"We are also aware that the UK firm whose contract was cancelled declined to provide codes to the many layers of security that had been encrypted to safeguard the integrity of both KCPE and KCSE national exams. We believe this process of sudden change of printer, hacking the exam system and having them printed on short notice is responsible for the disaster witnessed in the KCPE results," Raila added.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader further claimed that in return for kickbacks, the procurement for relaying the results to the public using the shortcode 40054 was also taken away from the original provider and awarded on short notice to another company on short notice, thus jeopardising the results.

He lamented that the local company lacked the capacity to provide services to facilitate the release of the results, hence the mess that culminated in the series of delays and errors witnessed after the results were released.

"It led to what KNEC has called the misalignment of marks and grades. Grades in science, social studies, and religious studies were truncated.

"The rot saw KCPE candidates get graded in subjects they never sat for. It saw an entire class score the same grades in Science in one school. The system deployed could not produce the plus and minus signs; what a shame," Raila slammed.

In what he termed as a first, Raila remarked on instances of some pupils challenging the results in court, seeking to establish their true grades.

“We have taken this step out of a firm belief that once we allow education and exam systems to be caught up in a tender war then we have no country to talk about. It is a universally accepted principle that a collapse of education is the collapse of a nation,” stated Raila.

“We will be subjecting our children to ridiculed diminished employment especially overseas and admission opportunities in the region and abroad if we allow the integrity of exams and certifications to be questionable and the truth is that these are being questioned."

As a consequence, Raila has written to 12 bodies; the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Catholic Bishops Conference, National Council of Churches of Kenya, Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association, Primary School Head Teachers Association, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT).

He also wrote to the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), Kenya Union of Post Primary Union of Teachers, National Parents Association, Kenya Private Schools Association, EACC, DCI, and Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE).