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{
    "id": 1348865,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1348865/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 999,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Marakwet West, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Timothy Kipchumba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, Nelson Mandela said: “If you want to destroy a country, you do not need long-range missiles. You only need to destroy its education and lower the standard of education.” We have had problems in this country in the recent years. Last year, we had problems with the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. That is why the Departmental Committee on Education and Research conducted an inquiry into mass cheating in last year's KCSE examinations. We do not need to say much here. It is apparent, on the face of the record, that there was massive cheating or problems in this year’s KCPE examinations. How do you explain all candidates in a certain school scoring a similar grade in all the subjects? How do you explain students in a certain school being awarded marks for subjects they did not sit for? There is a problem in this country and there is a problem with the Ministry of Education and the KNEC. Ultimately, someone must take responsibility and answer the country on what happened with the KCPE exams this year. I read today's newspapers which reported about a candidate who had scored 358 marks. Today - I do not know what process they used - his marks had been raised to 409. That explains that there was a problem. Finally, I have read the KNEC Act. There is a tribunal – the National Examination Council Tribunal – that is provided in the Kenya National Examinations Council Act. As we speak, that tribunal is not operational. We do not have a chairperson of that tribunal. The chairperson has not been appointed or gazetted. To the Cabinet Secretary for Education, shame on you. If we have a tribunal that is not operational, that means our candidates do not have an avenue of raising their complaints or disputes as envisaged in law. That tribunal is anchored in the KNEC Act of 2012 against the provision of Article 159(1)(d) of the Constitution that provides that such tribunal should be anchored in the Judiciary. Therefore, that tribunal, as a matter of urgency, must be gazetted and the chairperson appointed and the tribunal made operational. Secondly, that tribunal must be anchored in the Judiciary, not in the Ministry of Education. That is an apparent conflict of interest on the face of record. There is no way a tribunal anchored in the KNEC Act can oversee the Ministry of Education. There is a problem and this House must address it."
}