[1] The first KCSE exam was held in 1989 at the same time as the last Kenya Advanced Certificate of Education (KACE), which it replaced as the entrance requirement for Kenyan universities.
However, the dates and even months for the examination may change depending on various factors such as teachers' strikes and natural calamities such as Covid-19 which led to reshuffling of the academic calendar in all learning institutions in the country.
However, there have been instances of breaches of these measures leading to examination vices such as leakage to some selected students who if undetected end up scoring high grades.
Examination officials who participate in the cheating and leakaging of the exams questions are also charged in a court of law.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and due to the surge in cases, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Professor George Magoha, postponed the certificate examinations to 2021 for 800,000 Form 4 candidates.