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Four students have been arrested for allegedly engaging in malpractice during the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations via Whatsapp and Telegram platforms. Detectives used cyber and digital forensics to intercept dozens of messages containing screenshots of the papers that are currently being examined. According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Ministry of Education’s efforts to preserve the integrity of administering the examination have been jeopardized by corrupted government officials.

The Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) protested the dismissal of Maasai Mara University chief finance officer, who was among the staff who blew the whistle on the misappropriation of KES190 million (US$1.8 million). KUSU also called for the dissolution of the entire Maasai Mara University Council by the Ministry of Education and the removal of the acting vice-chancellor for covering up the case.

A recent report from Public Accounts Committee reveals the theft of billions of taxpayers' money pocketed by corrupt officials and school heads. The Mundeku Secondary School is one of the 4 ghost schools in the Ministry records with 1,188 students used by an official to steal Sh27,329,598.95 from public funds. The report found another officer inflating enrolment data for 185 schools, resulting in the overpayment of Sh269, 254,288. The cases have been submitted to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation.

Two former accountants at the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology received 7.5 years in prison after they were found guilty of embezzling Ksh2.5 million. They faced ten counts for fraudulent acquisition of public property, abuse of office, conspiracy to defraud and stealing by a person employed by the public service. Another Education official was sentenced to 2.5 years after stealing Ksh1.5 million of public funds.

A number of school heads planned to defraud the government by providing lists of non-existing teachers, which delayed the release of the funds to pay teachers and other staff employed by the Boards of Management (BoM). The Minister of Education asked principals to collect and submit the right data of BoM teachers employed including names, the Teachers Service Commission number, and the country they belong to.

According to a computer scientist and expert in contract cheating, Kenya has established itself as the centre of the academic cheating universe. The vast majority of university students’ work for essay factories which are delivered to British students with a guarantee they contain no plagiarism and all anonymous. In an effort to clamp down on the cheats and after pressure from the British Government, PayPal announced it would block payments to essay factories.

The recent steps taken by the UK government to end the use of essay mills by its students is a blow to thousands of Kenyan students and university graduates who rely on academic contract writing as their main source of income. An integrity expert tells in his blog that the participants think of their jobs as providing a service of value, not as helping people to cheat. They see themselves as working as academic writers but this practice is considered unethical and there are concerns it will have damaging effects on the quality of higher education.

After an attempt to cheat in the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, the Teachers Service Commission has commenced disciplinary action against errant teachers of a Kisii school, Nairobi. The Teachers Service Commission Chief Executive said seven teachers and a school principal are already facing action. Capital FM News established that a Chemistry paper had been sneaked out of the examination room but was quickly confiscated when the attempt to compromise the exam occurred at Monianku Secondary School.

The former chairperson of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) said that the government seems reluctant to fight corruption in public universities in Kenya which suffer different forms of corruption. For a long time, the Government did not take a keen interest in auditing universities until recently and most universities did not keep proper records of their revenues and expenditure. He added that the lack of accountability among vice-chancellors provided an environment for corruption to take root.

Kenya’s Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has threatened to go to court if the ministry of education does not take immediate action against the higher learning institutions in the country that are reported to be deducting from their employees’ salaries illegally without remitting deductions to the relevant institutions. Last month the ministry of education released an audit report showing that some public universities in the country were deducting billions of shillings from their employees' salaries and not regularly remitting the money to relevant agencies. The amount the institutions have been deducting illegally from the employees’ salaries is alleged to total approximately US$100 million.