KNEC Announces KCSE Examiners’ Payment Dates Following Protest Threats

Examination invigilators, supervisors and other support staff who worked on last year’s national exams will finally start getting paid this Thursday, August 6, according to the Kenya National Examinations Council.

KNEC Chief Executive Officer David Njengere confirmed the payment date, a welcome update after months of complaints from officials who administered the exams and were still waiting to be paid.

The confirmation came from a different direction too. In a statement issued on Tuesday, August 4, Basic Education Principal Secretary John Ololtuaa said the Ministry of Education had already released the necessary funds to KNEC.

“I informed the Committee that the Ministry has already disbursed the funds to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), and payments to examination personnel will commence on Thursday, 6th August 2026,” the statement read.

Ololtuaa was appearing before the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Education, where the unpaid dues owed to personnel who helped run the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) and Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) exams featured prominently in the discussion.

The announcement comes as teachers’ unions keep up the pressure over delayed payments, with a good number of examination personnel still empty-handed heading into the 2026 national exam cycle.

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers has been especially vocal, warning more than once that its members could boycott this year’s exam administration altogether if the outstanding money isn’t cleared first.

Some examiners have confirmed getting paid, but KUPPET says thousands of teachers who worked on last year’s exams are still waiting, despite Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi confirming a month ago that the funds had already been released.

The union has claimed KNEC still needs about Ksh4 billion more to clear everyone who is owed. Even so, the latest assurance hasn’t fully convinced everyone.

Several teachers took to social media to point out that similar promises have been made for more than six months without much to show for it, and several said they’d only believe it once the money actually lands and they get official payment confirmation messages.

With the next round of national exams just months away, the standoff isn’t over yet; teachers say they’re watching closely to see whether KNEC actually follows through this time.

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