The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detective attached to Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) arrested four University students allegedly responsible for selling exams to Kenya Certificate of Secondary Schools Examinations (KCSE) to candidates across the country.
According to the detectives, they launched investigations a week ago that led to the arrest of the four.
“The main suspect Gideon Kibet Tanui alias Evans Kipruto, an Information Technology student at Baringo Technical College, was picked from his rented room next to the college on March 15, at around10:30 am, while he was busy administering English paper 2 and Chemistry paper 1, to students of Silibwet and Sitoito secondary schools in Molo, Via his what’s app group with a following of 70 members. “ DCI said.
The police said that the suspect was dishing out examination papers at a paltry Sh500 per paper. He was also discovered to be a member of two fraudulent examination Telegram groups with over 17,000 followers
“The IT student whose Mpesa account had over Sh10,000 at the time of his arrest, was also operating a separate KCB account at Kabarnet branch, where he immediately transferred the received cash from his Mpesa to avoid reversals. In order to conceal his identity, the SIM card he was using was registered using the identification details of one Evans Kiprono.”
Tanui was working with three of his accomplices, leading detectives to Rongo University students Kevin Kiprotich Langat, Justice Leting ,and a yet to be identified culprit.
Langat, DCI said, kept in constant touch with Tanui having forwarded him the English paper prior to its commencing date.
“It is at Rongo University where a wider syndicate of the examination fraudsters existed, in a Telegram group dubbed the ‘Kale Group’ created under the name ‘Bailing Out’ among other groups,” the DCI added.
Langat led detectives to yet another culprit, a first year political science and swahili comrade, identified as Justice Leting, who at the time of arrest was busy distributing the Kiswahili paper and preparing answers for the Chemistry practical paper.
In Leting’s WhatsApp forum, a candid interaction between him and a student named Bett was retrieved, where Leting assured him that all was well and that the answers he had provided were legit since he was a ‘star’ in Swahili, during his time.
“Nilipata one hour to, nikaunda answers,” Leting assured the candidate. “Niliunda legitly, nilikuwanga star kwa Kiswahili,” he added.
“Relentless efforts by detectives have also unearthed that the syndicate also operates a till number account at Ecobank, where candidates are being asked to deposit Ksh. 5,000 per paper, or a discounted rate of Ksh. 20,000 for the whole examination,” the DCI added