Affirmative action for students from arid areas as top schools pick Form 1 candidates

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi. Kisumu Municipality has sent the highest number of KCPE candidates to national schools according to documents seen by the Nation. The minister said the slots were filled in a way that reflected the face of Kenya. PHOTO/BILLY MUTAI.  NATION

In Summary

• Embakasi and Kasarani ranked as top districts in Nairobi County as Makueni takes lead in Eastern region.
• In some of the rare selections, two candidates who scored 296 and 264 marks respectively secured place in national schools.
• Other districts that sent more than 200 students to national schools were Molo and Kakamega Central who sent 200 and 201 students respectively.

By SAMWEL BORN MAINA
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Kisumu Municipality has sent the highest number of KCPE candidates to national schools according to documents seen by the Nation.

The district has 441 candidates joining the country’s 78 national schools. It was followed by Mumias District with 436 candidates.

Mombasa Municipality was third. A total of 355 candidates from the area will be joining national secondary schools during admission on February 3.

Mombasa was followed by Embakasi District with 299 selected candidates. Nandi North was fifth with a total of 259 selected candidates.

In Central Kenya, Eastern, Nairobi and surrounding regions, Embakasi had the highest number of selected candidates (299). Makueni (237) and Kasarani (221) also performed well.

Others with more than 100 selected candidates were Kikuyu (160), Imenti South (151), Kibwezi (146) Kirinyaga Central (131), Githunguri (127), Kajiado North (114).

In some of the rare selections, two candidates who scored 296 and 264 marks respectively secured place in national schools.

IIsmahan Abdirashid Abdikadir of Anole primary school in Eldas will join Kenya High while Hamdi Jamaa Mohamed who scored 264 will join Bura Girls.

Mohamed, who is from Wajir South District, was the candidate who joined a national school with the lowest score this year.

Daphne Akoth, who jointly topped in the last year’s KCPE, will be joining Alliance Girls.

ALL REGIONS CONSIDERED

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi said the slots were filled in a way that reflected the face of Kenya.

“Every region was considered, we ensured each district got a space in the 78 national schools,” he said.

A total of 17,175 were selected from various districts countrywide.

Eldas, Garbatula, Habaswein, Lagdera, Wajir, Turkana districts had only four selected candidates each. They fared badly compared to the other districts, which sent hundreds of students to the top schools each.

In some of the districts, private schools dominated the slots despite the fact that the allocation criterion favoured public institutions.

For example, in Ruiru, private schools took 111 slots out of the 120 allocated to the region. That means candidates from public schools took only 11 per cent of the vacancies.

In western Kenya, districts like Bungoma East, with 256 selected candidates, Bungoma South (224), Kakamega Central (201) and Kisii Central (131), were among the best performers.

In the Rift Valley, Nandi North (259), Naivasha (218), Molo (200), Eldoret West (156), Bomet (136), Eldoret Municipality (123) were among the districts that led in the rankings.

Nationally, Bungoma East, with 256 candidates was the sixth while Makueni district follows with 237.

Bungoma South with 224 candidates and Kasarani (221) were eighth and nineth respectively in the log of districts sending a high number of candidates to national schools. Naivasha completed the top 10.

Other districts that sent more than 200 students to national schools were Molo and Kakamega Central who sent 200 and 201 students respectively.