The High Court has issued conservatory orders suspending the July KCSE special exams that the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has been planning to hold for repeaters, private candidates and candidates who might have missed the 2024 KCSE exams.
The suspension follows a case that was filed by a Nakuru-based doctor and activist Magare Gikenyi at the Kisii High Court.
In the application, Gikenyi told the court that the exams that KNEC is planning to hold violates constitutional rights which include the right to education, fair administrative action, and public participation. Gikenyi told the court that KNEC had made the decision to hold the special exams without consulting parents and students, or other stakeholders in the education sector.
“The mandatory nature [as opposed to choosing either the July or November examination series] goes against the right of every individual to choose an examination which is convenient to him or her to enjoy the rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights to the greatest extent as provided in Articles 20(2) of the constitution,” Gikenyi said in his petition.
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In a ruling that issued on Wednesday, Lady Justice Odera Teresa Achieng ruled that the petition had met the threshold for conservatory orders to be issued suspending the July KCSE special exams whose candidates KNEC had already started to register.
“The application has met the threshold for granting conservatory orders at this stage. I proceed to issue conservatory orders…to preserve the subject matter pending inter partes hearing,” Lady Justice Odera Teresa Achieng ruled.
KNEC had on January 27 opened the registration portal for the exams. In a circular signed by the KNEC chief executive officer David Njengere, prospective candidates had been given between Monday January 27 and 21st February 2025 to register for the examinations.
The registration targeted three groups of students: repeating candidates who wish to improve their previous grades, candidates who missed previous KCSE exam papers due to unavoidable circumstances like illnesses, and adult learners who are not enrolled in any regular school but have proof of primary education.
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