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"id": 196927,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196927/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Ongeri",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 124,
"legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
"slug": "samson-ongeri"
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"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, as far as the queries are concerned, we are still within the time limit and they can raise those questions. I am prepared to sit down with the hon. Member, the head of the school and everybody else in order to find out why the school performed poorly. That is a legitimate question, but it has no relevance to the mean grades that we are talking about now. So, that is all about the first question I wanted to dispose of. The question by Mr. ole Metito was that there was a lot of cheating and leakage in the examination. In fairness to me, he raised the question of grading, but he did not raise the question of cheating. However, I have, as a matter of course, included that as one of the subsequent issues that I have got to address. I am aware that last year, through Press cuttings, a lot of noise was made about leakages that were never verified. The examination was done and nobody came up to say, \"We are making a complaint because school A or B had these papers and here are the leakages\". In the absence of that, the results were announced albeit I will go and look at some of the leakages that have been said to be rampant in the KCSE Examination. I will also look at the origin of those leakages. Could they be connected to the error that we are now experiencing and which is now creating so much anxiety and pain? Mr. ole Metito also raised the question of some students who sat for the KCSE Examination not having obtained their results like their colleagues. Yes, that error occurs all the time. This is not the first time. Even in the previous year, I have checked, the error occurred. In fact, to be honest with this House, I have checked and confirmed that in one of the schools, there was an error with grading. They are now repeating the marking of those papers. In that school, they judged the students on the basis of one paper as opposed to two papers. This is because they forgot the results in some place. They were, however, retrieved immediately after that. That has been done and the error is being rectified. That is why, in my statement, earlier on, I said that no child will suffer any consequences of anybody, officer or non-officer, who may have mishandled the processing of these results. That is why I went to great pains to inform you the process through which examination papers go, so that I can pinpoint where the problem is and deal with the cancer. As a surgeon, you remove the cancer effectively. You do not just cut tissues all over the place without any plan, programme or assessment. This is a preliminary report I have given you and I intend to come back to this august House to give you a full report of what I would have found out. Mr. Musila talked about the credibility of this House and the need for me to address the issue of examination leakages. I have already responded to that very easily. Mr. ole Ntimama talked about the fiasco that hit the country and yet members of the KNEC are still intact. I believe that we are in this House to make laws. We say that somebody is only guilty when it has been truly proven that he is guilty. At this stage, we are just building up an alibi. Give us room to do so. Do not condemn somebody unheard. Let us get the evidence on the table. Let us not operate--- If we want to impute lack of integrity on the KCSE Examination, then our processes in investigating any malpractices in the examination must be equally above board. You cannot demand integrity on that side and at the 372 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 25, 2008 same time expect me to organise and carry out a process which is faulty. It has to be above board. It has to be a process that everybody understands and one which is clear. Mr. Speaker, Sir, for your information, I did not only include a member from one religious organisation as has been alluded to here by one hon. Member. Yes, there is Bishop Nzimbi and the Muslim Professor El Busaidy. He is a scholar in his own right apart from being the Chairman of Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM). Besides those, there are professional and educational experts; that is, professors of education who will be able to give me informed decisions. Because it has been believed that the computer is the source of the error, I have included the directors of Computer Studies at Kenyatta University, the University of Nairobi, National Bureau of Statistics and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) so that they can go into the details and elaborate how the computer mistake occurred. There are several questions I ask myself. There are two servers. They only used one server. Why did they not use the second server? I cannot answer that question. I will need an expert opinion to answer that question. That is where we are. The hon. Member for Dujis asked the same question. I think everyone is baying for the blood of the KNEC. How do you know whether there is no sabotage within the KNEC itself? Who is responsible for the sabotage within the KNEC? Do not lay blame at a blanket level that somebody has done it! I just want to know: Is the computer expert, the man responsible for all these mistakes? Is the person who generates the examination papers responsible for the leakages? Or, are the moderators, who are from the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE), the source of the leakages of the KCSE Examination? Is it the person responsible for the dissemination of the results on the green papers to the KNEC the source of the error? Is it possible that the papers reached the centres two weeks before the KCSE Examination? Could this be one of the possible sources of leakages that you are referring to? Indeed, I have no answers. However, I just want to look and find out the correct position so that when I come back to this august House, I will be able to tell you, \"Yes, the leakages arose because of A, B, C and D or the error occurred because either the computer was too old or it simply was the cause of the error.\" Mr. Lesrima asked what type of computers are in use. I think I have answered him. With regard to Mr. Bifwoli's question, there is no excuse for some students getting low marks. We have reviewed those cases. I just want to understand this computer error. My understanding of computers is very basic. Is it as a result of human introduced error? Is it a true computer error? Is it a virus that caused the error? Is it a generated error? These are questions which must be answered. I think all of us here understand that the computer experts will be able to give those answers to us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir."
}