The top candidate in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (KCPE) has scored 431 marks.

This is a three-mark improvement from the 2021 exam.

Releasing the results Wednesday morning, the new Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu announced that of the about 1.2 million candidates who wrote the exams, 9,443 scored 400 marks and above out of the possible 500.

“The mark of the highest candidate rose from 428 in 2021 to 431 in 2022. We are very impressed with the KCPE examination class of 2022 for performing well and raising the standards of the main performance” he said.

The much-awaited announcement was met with mixed reactions when the CS did not name the top candidates. 

The overall performance of class 2022 was above board with female candidates performing better than their male counterparts in English, Kiswahili, and Kenya sign language, while male candidates performed better in Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Religious Education

More than half of all the candidates (619,583 or 50.22 percent) scored between 200 and 299 marks as compared with 578,106 or 47.17 percent who scored between the same marks in 2021.

Parents can access the KCPE results by sending candidates' full index number followed by KCPE to 20076.

Headteachers will be required to download and print the online results slips for candidates in their schools and authenticate the same before they are released to parents, guardians or candidates.