KCSE candidate sues Matiang'i

juma chrispinus

January 16, 2018 11:53 AM

The student scored a D+ in the 2017 KCSE.

A former student at Mvindeni Secondary School in Kwale County has sued Education CS Dr Fred Matiang’i and the George Magoha-led Kenya National Examination Council, after he was awarded grade D+ in 2017 KCSE.

A petition filed at Mombasa High Court by the student, wanted the respondents – Education Ministry and KNEC – be compelled to supply his marked scripts in the previous examinations.

“The petitioner is a very bright student and after repeating the 2016 examination he has more than doubled his efforts and was expecting not less than a B+ in his 2017 examination results,” the lawyer representing the student, Lucy Momanyi argued, adding that the student was capable of scoring a B+.

Rights infringement

It was the second time the student sat KCSE examinations having scored a C- (minus) in 2016 and argued through his lawyer that without a court order, the KNEC would not re-mark his papers within the timelines set out, infringing on his right to education.

Apart from CS Matiang’i, the student sued the Attorney-General, the Mvindeni Secondary School head teacher and Kwale County director of education.

“Without clear legal framework providing for re-marking, the petitioner is apprehensive that his constitutional rights stand to be infringed upon,” the petition reads in part.

Poor performance

Already Mombasa High Court Justice Njoki Mwangi directed the petitioner to serve the respondents with the suit papers. The case, according to the High Court, will be heard on Wednesday (tomorrow), January 17.

In the previous years’ KCSE, hundreds of students performed decimally poor, especially boys, prompting a debate in the need to remark the examinations stakeholders argued that the Ministry took almost humanly impossible time to mark, analyse, scrutinise and post results.

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