In a significant legal move, more than 200 parents from Kitengala International School and Set Greenhill Day and Mixed Boarding School have approached the court, seeking to halt the ongoing Form 1 selection process. The parents are urging the court to suspend the selection until their case, which demands a thorough review of this year’s Kenya Primary Certificate Examination (KCPE) results due to alleged widespread irregularities, is heard and determined.
Represented by lawyer Danstan Omari, petitioners Teddy Mutiso and Joshua Nyansera have filed a lawsuit against Education CS Ezekiel Machogu, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, and the Kenya National Examination Council. The parents claim dissatisfaction with the marking of their children’s papers in the recently released KCPE examination results.
In court documents, Teddy Mutiso expressed concern about the performance of Kitengala School over the last three years. She stated, “The Kitengela International School has consistently posted good results in national examinations for more than three years. It was my legitimate expectation that my child, as a candidate in the school, would perform well, given the school’s previous record. However, there is a marked variance between the marks scored by students in previous years and the marks posted for the year 2023 in the same KCPE examinations.”
Fourteen-year-old Natalie Chelagat, who has also joined the legal action through her parents, questioned whether the government was “taxing” their marks. Chelagat appealed to the President for intervention, stating, “If ballot papers can be recounted, why not our marks? I would like to ask CS Machogu to remark our papers because the marks we were awarded do not reflect our performance, and we had very high expectations.”
Teddy Mutiso further emphasized that without a review of the results, she fears her child might miss out on Form 1 placement. She argued, “The Form 1 placement exercise is set to start on November 27, 2023, and I am apprehensive that the exercise is rushed, making meaningless the 90-day review period provided under the rules. The exercise will be an unreasonable action on the part of the Respondent, potentially causing my child to miss a secondary school of her choice if the review is in her favor.”
The emotional toll of the alleged irregularities was evident in Edna Gesare, a parent at Kitengala International School, who broke down at the Milimani Law Courts. She expressed devastation over her daughter’s results, citing sacrifices and a sense of vendetta. “I know my child’s potential; she has never dropped below 400 marks. There is a vendetta, there is a lot of malice. My daughter has fallen into depression, questioning the point of working hard,” Gesare shared.
Lawyer Danstan Omari added a scathing critique of the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), describing it as a “scene of crime” and accusing the government of politicizing exam results. “The whole of KNEC is a scene of crime. This government should stop politicizing exam results; that’s why we even sued the IG and the DCI boss,” he asserted.
