Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) has given candidates who submitted falsified birth certificate numbers during registration a two-week deadline to correct their records or risk being removed from the 2019 national exams. The council's CEO, Mercy Karogo, emphasized that all affected students must submit valid documents by March 6 and upload them online by March 15.
Over 370,000 candidates were identified with fraudulent documentation during the registration process for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). Of these, 346,916 were primary school candidates and 28,713 were in secondary education. The total number of registered students for 2019 exams reached 1.78 million, with 1,089,671 for KCPE and 698,935 for KCSE across 10,304 centers.
Knec's verification process required candidates to confirm their registration between February 16-22 by texting their index numbers to 20076. Karogo alleged that some parents and headteachers colluded to bypass this step, with many submitting suspicious numbers like 0000 or 123456. The council's system remains disconnected from the Integrated Population Registration Service, enabling these discrepancies.
Candidates must now present original birth certificates to school heads, who are responsible for entering accurate details and legitimate photos. Karogo warned that any student failing to submit valid documentation would be disqualified from the 2019 exams. The council is also investigating examination centers that allegedly used fake records to meet minimum candidate thresholds for accreditation.
