Kioko Joseph Kyalo, a visually impaired pupil from Kangundo Deb Primary School has emerged top of his class in the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams.
Kyalo who scored 409 marks out of a possible 500 was also ranked third in the National tally among the best scorers for those with special needs.
He managed to beat Maingi Purity Kalondu and Mwendwa Rodney Ngila who came a distant second with 402 marks.
And at Ikombe DEB Primary School, Musau Joseph Mutinda and Gakenia James Ikenya both came top in their class after scoring 416 marks. They were followed closely by Oserah Prince Kelvin who got 415 marks.
At least 17 candidates scored over 400 marks in the same school which has in recent years been posting sterling performances.
But it is in Tala Township Primary School, Mweu Emmanuel Ndeleva managed to pull a surprise after scooping an impressive 423 marks, while Odhiambo Melissa Imani came a distant second with 318 marks.
The same scenario was replicated at the Mwala DEB Primary School where Mutinda Magalene Ndinda scored 408 marks, followed by Mwangi Brian Gaturuku who got 388 marks.
Among private schools that posted fairly good performance was Kyandu Bright Academy where two candidates managed to cross the magical 400 score line.
The two, Vyonne Waeni and Patrick Mulwa, led the pack in their class after scoring 415 and 408 marks respectively.
They were followed closely by Eleazer Matei and Emmanuel Munyao who managed to garner 398 and 396 marks respectively.
But among public schools that kept their flag high was Machakos Primary School where out of the 202 candidates, 12 managed to post more than 400 marks.
Top of the class was Nthiwa Meshack who scored 408 marks followed closely by Munyao Lilian Mwikali and Musau Recarda Levina both who scored 407 marks.
At least 52 others scored more than 300 marks with only 39 falling below the 300 mark.
When KNA reached the Deputy County Director for Education, Mrs Nancy Afande to comment on the overall performance of the exams, she said they are yet to receive the final printouts from the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to enable them undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the results.
“We are still waiting for the Kenya National Examinations Council to furnish us with the final printouts for all schools within the county before we can come up with an evaluation of the performance. Hopefully this can only be done by end of next week,” she said.
This year at least 38,730 class eight pupils in Machakos County wrote the KCPE exams with 19,104 being girls and 19,601 boys.
Nationally out of the 1,179,192 candidates who sat for the exams, 8,091 scored over 400 marks, a drop from 9,673 in 2019.
Faith Mumo Kaswii from Kari Mwailu Primary School in Makueni County was ranked top nationally after scooping 433 marks out of a possible 500.
The Government has already announced that the process of school selection for those who sat for the exams will commence in May with July set as the earliest month when they are expected to join Form One.
By Samuel Maina
