Some 408 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates in 15 schools in Kilifi County have been evacuated to other centres following floods that affected their schools.
The Kilifi County Director of Education (CDE), Eunice Khaemba said the 10 schools in Ganze and five in Kauma had become inaccessible due to heavy rains and flash floods, necessitating the evacuation of the learners to safer centres.
Speaking at the Malindi Deputy County Commissioner’s office after witnessing the distribution of examination materials to centre managers early on Tuesday, Ms. Khaemba said the students had been taken to schools with boarding facilities, and “they are comfortable.”
“The 261 candidates in Ganze are sitting their examinations at Vitengeni Secondary School, which has boarding facilities, while 147 candidates from Kauma are equally in a good boarding school,” she said.
She thanked Ganze Member of Parliament, Teddy Mwambire for providing food and non-food items to the affected candidates, and the Ministry of Interior for ensuring security and the availability of vehicles to ferry examination materials and personnel.
“We thank the MP Ganze for providing food and other humanitarian aid to the affected candidates and we believe the candidates are comfortable enough to write their examination papers despite being away from their usual centres,” she said.
Ms. Khaemba, who was flanked by Malindi Sub County Director of Education, Veronica Kalungo and Malindi Deputy County Commissioner Kamau Kanung’o said the examinations had started on a positive note in the entire county.
She said 34,367 candidates were sitting the examinations in the 661 centres across the county, and that adequate supervisors, invigilators and security personnel have been deployed to man the centres.
She also said the county had 222 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) centres, where practical examinations were ongoing. The main examination will start next week.
By Emmanuel Masha
