Sunday, 20 March 2022 – Detectives have arrested four suspects responsible for high-level examination fraud, following intelligence reports of the sale of examination papers to candidates sitting the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Schools Examinations (KCSE).
The detectives attached to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) launched the investigations exactly one week ago, and have so far arrested the four who are college students in at least four institutions of higher learning.
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 around 10:30 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.
The suspect who was dishing out examination papers at a paltry Sh500 per paper, 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.
In an operation that also involved the DCI social media sleuths and a Twitter admin who posed as a candidate, Tanui engaged the detectives in a hide and seek game since last Sunday, from the characteristic cold Molo highlands to Kabarnet in Baringo, where he was finally cornered.
His arrest led the detectives to Kevin Kiprotich Langat, a bachelor of arts student in Swahili, at Rongo University, who was arrested on Thursday. Langat who was in constant communication with the first suspect had forwarded the English paper to him.
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.
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.
