KCSE 2026 Kicks Off With Nearly One Million Candidates, Full Timetable
Close to a million students settled into exam rooms across Kenya this morning as the 2026 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) got going in earnest. In all, 996,078 candidates are registered.
English Paper 1 kicked off the day at 8.00 a.m., with Chemistry Paper 1 to follow at 2.00 p.m. For most of those in the room, it is the point four years of secondary school have been heading towards.
Strictly speaking, the process started well before today. The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has been running different parts of KCSE for weeks, and in some subjects for months. What changes on 2nd November is that the whole cohort now sits papers together for the first time.
Project work came first. Candidates in Art and Design, Agriculture, Woodwork, Metalwork, Building Construction and Computer Studies worked on their projects from January to July, with schools required to upload marks on 31st March and again on 31st July.
Attention then shifted to the exam centres. On Friday 16th October, managers, supervisors, invigilators and security officers ran a rehearsal to check that arrangements held up before real papers were in play.
Smaller groups of candidates followed. Oral and practical tests in French, German, Kenyan Sign Language and Music ran from 19th to 23rd October, with 15 minutes allotted to each candidate. Arabic orals took a little longer, finishing on 26th October. Home Science candidates had a planning session on 21st October, then sat their Foods and Nutrition practical between 26th and 28th October.
Written papers in languages and Music, among them French, German, Arabic and Kenyan Sign Language, were held on Wednesday 28th October. On Thursday and Friday, technical and practical candidates took Home Science, Art and Design, Woodwork, Metalwork, Building Construction, Electricity, Aviation Technology, Power Mechanics, Drawing and Design, and Computer Studies.
The timetable is punishing, and candidates will have to pace their energy as much as their revision.
Tomorrow, Tuesday 3rd November, brings Mathematics Paper 1 in the morning and English Paper 2 (Comprehension, Literary Appreciation and Grammar) in the afternoon. On Wednesday, Chemistry Paper 2 and General Science Paper 1 are in the morning, followed by English Paper 3, the creative composition and set-text essay paper, after lunch.
Kiswahili takes over on Thursday 5th November, with Lugha in the morning and Insha in the afternoon. The Chemistry practical closes out the week on Friday 6th.
Week two opens on Monday 9th November with Mathematics Paper 2 and Kiswahili Fasihi. Religious Education, Biology and History and Government papers then run through to Friday 13th, when the Biology practicals take place.
Geography, Physics, Business Studies and Agriculture fill the final stretch from 16th to 19th November, and the Physics practical on Friday 20th November brings the examination to a close.
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