Kiambu national schools post top grades
Eric Wainaina and Irene Githinji
Kiambu County topped the list of top 10 best performing national schools in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results released on Wednesday.
While Nairobi County produced the best school nationally, Kenya High, which had 76 candidates with A(plain) and Nairobi School with 23, Kiambu registered four in those brackets.
Alliance High School made it to position three in the list with a mean grade of 48 points, Alliance Girls’ High School with 27 A (plains) while Gatundu North-based Maryhill Girls and Mang’u High School were position six and seven with 25 and 23 As respectively.
Maryhill Girls made a huge leap in this year’s KCSE exams with an improvement index of more than 1.1 points after posting a mean score of 9.92 compared to 8.81 last year.
Out of the 337 candidates, 333 attained the minimum university admission grades with 25 straight A’s and 117 A-minus compared to only one A-plain the previous year.
Vera Karimi was the top girl in the national school with an A grade of 84 points while Daisy Waniru got an A of 81 points.
The Principal Jacintah Ngure said only four candidates got grade C-minus which, however, earns them a place in technical training colleges.
“We are encouraging students who do not attain university grades to go for courses in tertiary institutions. They should not give up because this is where the backbone of the Big Four agenda is,” Ngure said. 
Nandi County produced the second-best school-Kapsabet Boys’, which had 49 As, Nakuru, Kisumu and Uasin Gishu counties produced one school each in the list.
They were Moi High School, Kabarak, which had 30 As, Maseno School which had 23 As and Moi Girls’ High School in Eldoret.
In the counties, Maranda High School registered sterling performance, having registered 619 university entry grades out of 705 students who sat the examinations
“Only 86 students missed a chance to join the University. I am proud of producing the highest number of candidates who qualified for direct university entry in the county.
One of the secrets for success is co-operation,” said Maranda Principal Edwin Namachanja. The school has a record of quality grades where A’s were 19, A-(142) B+ (156), B (133), B- (99) and C+ (69) C-(30) D+ (10) and D plain (6).
The school has an improvement of the mean from 8.4 to 8.90628. At the coast region Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, Memon Academy and Light Academy in Mombasa posted the best results in the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education KCSE examination.
According to results tabulated Sheikh Khalifa had 206 candidates out of which 3 scored grade A plain, 38 had A-minus while 46 scored B plus. 36 scored grade B plain, 41 had B minus, 33 with C plus and 7 Cs. This generated a mean score of 9.01 marks from last year’s 8.73 points.
The best candidate at Sheikh Khalifa was Khoulaita Abbas who scored a grade A of 83 points while the best one at Light Academy was Ahmed Khaiyrat Mohamed with an A of 81 points.
Memon Academy had 93 candidates out of whom two scored grades A plain and 11 grades A-minus.
Light Academy’s mean score was 8.72 from 76 candidates out of which one scored an A plain amidst 11 grades A-minus.
Embu’s Moi High Mbiruri is leading in the county with a mean score of 8.4, with 2 As and 22 A- while those who qualified for university with C plus and above being 202 out of 239 who did the exam.
Moi Mbiruri is followed closely by Kyeni Girls High school from Runyenjes with a mean score of 8.2, with 11 A- and 125 with C+ and above out of 144 candidates while Kangaru Girls trails third with means score of 8.01.
Agoro Sare Boys High School emerged the giant school in Homa Bay County after recording a mean score 8.843points.
This is an improvement from the last year’s KCSE in which it had a mean score of 8.6 points.Out of 413 candidates, 10 scored A plain, 75 scored A- , 87 B+,80B, 56 B-, 56C+, 36C,10C-, 2D+ and 1 D (plain).
The candidates included Okudo Jason Odila (83 points), Daniel Okumu (82 points), Odhiambo Previn Mark (82 points) and Ambrose Aduol Adeya (81 points).
Principal James Momanyi attributed the exemplary performance to hard work and co-operation between students and teachers. “Proper coordination and teamwork between students and teachers created enabling environment for us to achieve the good results we have had today,” Momanyi said.
Nyambaria High School in Nyamira maintained its top position in the region and also produced the top student Ray Kiage who scored A plain of 82 points.
The school Principal Boaz Owino said the institution recorded a mean score of 8.0 from last years mean score of 6.85.
The institution had 370 candidates who sat for the test. Chavakali Boys, Friends School Kamusinga, Musingu High and Bunyore Girls the perennial Academic giants from Vihiga bounced back to academic glory after they posted impressive results.
Chavakali had Victor Abayesi posting A of 84 points, Bravin Ombima with A of 82 points and Victor Mulinge, Ignatius Shisia and David Mokuru flying high the academic flag of their school with A of 81 points respectively.
