By Florence Norah
A class eight pupil whose name was missing in the list of Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (KCPE) candidates has threatened to commit suicide.
Emanuel Odhimabo whose school Break Through Academy was recently closed because of safety reasons was not among candidates registered at St Joseph’s Ombo Primary School.
Twenty standard eight pupils from the private school were registered at St Joseph’s, a public school because the former was not a registered examination centre.
The distressed Odhiambo said he only realized his name was missing when he joined his colleagues who were also registered at the public school for rehearsal on Monday.
“I was locked out and never given an index number since the one I had been allocated was missing,” Odhiambo said.
He has now threatened to commit suicide if he fails to do his examinations as his dream of being an engineer has been dealt a blow.
“He was prepared since he has been performing well, but we are afraid of losing him because he may commit suicide,” Teresa Atieno Otieno, the mother said.
Boaz Oyoo, the director of Break Through Academy confirmed that the institution was not registered examination a center and was recently closed down during crackdown of institutions which were unsafe.
“We took names of all candidates to public schools. We played our part and therefore we don’t have any candidate,” Oyoo said.
John Okello, Ombo head teacher refused to comment on the issue saying registration of candidates was done before the boy joined the institution.
He refused to comment on why the public institution was registering students from private schools.
The incident happened as Principal Secretary State Department for University Education Professor Colleta Suda oversaw distribution of examinations across Migori County.
Suda said the Ministry of Education will deal with exam malpractice across the country .
“Education officers and other stakeholders are on the lookout for any pilferage of examinations materials and are ready to curb cheating in the examinations,” she said.
The Principal Secretary said cartels involved in the examinations cheating will be dealt with firmly and all measures have been put in place to help curb the vice.
She regretted that many candidates fail to get results because of the cheating malpractices.
“We will make sure that exam are delivered without any problem and eventually deliver a very clean examination,” Said Prof Suda.
Migori County police commander Joseph Nthenge assured the stakeholders of stern actions against those who will be found violating examinations regulations and also told the stakeholders to shun from any involvement in cheating.
He said that security measures have been put in place to ensure that all the examination centres have adequate security officers to ensure that the exercise is done under good and secure conditions.
A total of 167, 136 candidates are sitting exams in all the 4,715 centers in Nyanza, with Migori registering a total number of candidates to be 29,066 candidates all who reported to their respective examination centers to write the exams.
