Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has taken a firm stand against the Kenya National Examinations Council regarding its management of the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results.
On January 13, just four days after the results were announced, Omtatah issued a stringent seven-day ultimatum to the examination body, citing what he described as a “fundamental injustice” in the grading of Kenya Sign Language (KSL).
The senator contends that the grading policy exhibits contradictions. For hearing-impaired candidates, KSL was appropriately classified as a compulsory language paper, forming an essential part of their final aggregate score. In contrast, for hearing students, their KSL marks were allegedly excluded from the calculation of their overall mean grade.
Hearing students were encouraged to pursue KSL as a technical skill under the government’s inclusive education policy. This inconsistency, Omtatah argues, not only undermines the value of the subject but also disadvantages hearing candidates compared to their peers, whose technical subjects like Business Studies or Computer Studies contribute directly to their final scores.
“This is discriminatory and punishes students for embracing a national language,” Omtatah asserted in his demand letter to the Kenya National Examinations Council.
He has called for a complete recall and recomputation of results for all affected candidates, emphasizing that their grades must be recalculated with KSL included in their aggregate scores.
Omtatah has granted the examination body a seven-day ultimatum to provide detailed data on the affected candidates and to correct this anomaly. He warned that failure to comply would lead to a formal petition being filed at the High Court, seeking judicial orders to ensure equitable grading.
A recalculation has the potential to significantly impact university placement outcomes for thousands of students who applied for courses in the 2025/2026 academic cycle. Furthermore, he has urged an immediate suspension of the 2026 KCSE exam registration until a definitive solution is established.
As of now, the Kenya National Examinations Council has yet to issue a public response, even as the deadline has passed.
