In the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam this year, the top candidate received 428 out of 500 points.

On Thursday, Ezekiel Machogu, the cabinet secretary for education, announced the results of the 1,406 557 applicants who took the KCPE exam.

Speaking at the newly constructed Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) headquarters in South B, Nairobi, CS Machogu reported that 352,782 candidates received between 300 and 399 marks, accounting for 24.92 percent of the cohort. In comparison, 8,525 candidates received over 400 marks, or 0.60 percent of the class this year.


Simultaneously, the group of candidates with the highest number (658,278), or 48.49 percent, was the 200–299 bracket. The remaining 38,3025 candidates, or 27.05 percent of the total, received scores between 100 and 199.

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Two thousand sixty students scored lower than 99, or 0.15 percent of the total.

Male candidates comprised 51.3% of the class overall, while female candidates comprised 48.7%.

“Female candidates performed slightly better than their male counterparts in English language, Kiswahili and Kenya Sign Language while the male candidates performed slightly better than their female counterparts in Maths and Science,” CS Machogu said.


“There were 9,354 candidates who never did the examination and we have given them the opportunity to come and do the exam in January.”

Only two candidates were found to have engaged in exam malpractice, according to the education minister, who praised the high standards of integrity in this year's examination.

The 8-4-4 education system in primary schools ended on October 30 with the administration of the KCPE exam.

Since it replaced the 7-4-2-3 system in 1985, the 8-4-4 has been in use for 39 years. The old system has been replaced by the 2-6-3-3-3 competency-based curriculum (CBC), which was implemented in 2017.

"Every education indicator demonstrates that the cohort is receiving high-quality instruction and learning. CS Machogu stated on Thursday, "I want to reassure the nation that all the curriculum materials are in place to support the learners.