A total of 13 inmates from Naivasha GK prison missed out on the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) examinations on Monday.
The inmates were either released or transferred to other penal institutions with the prison registering a total of 54 candidates for the national exams.
Of the number, twenty one are serving life sentence in the prison that has over 3,000 inmates majority of whom are under the education programme.
According to the officer in charge of the prison Hassan Tari the inmates were all set for exams despite various challenges.
He said 23 inmates had been registered for KCPE through two missed out after being released while 31 had been registered for KPSEA though 11 had missed out.
“The examination materials reached the prison in time and all the inmates were present apart from those who have been transferred or set free” he said.
He said that the prison department had provided all the required support to the inmates as education had turned out to be a tool of rehabilitation.
"The exams kicked off in time and the inmates have exuded confidence of performing well amid few emerging challenges," he said.
One of the inmates, Gideon Langat who is serving 12 years for robbery, praised the teachers who are also inmates for the work they had done in preparing the inmates.
He challenged the government to in future allocate funds to the education department in prison which had turned out to be a tool of rehabilitation.
“Despite all the problems, we are ready to challenge our fellow students who have an advantage over us as their schools are funded unlike us,” he said.
Naivasha subcounty education officer Nancy Mutai termed the exercise as free and fair adding that no hiccups had been reported on the first day.
“All the schools received the exams materials at the right time and we have not recorded any challenge on the first day,” she said.