NAIROBI, Kenya- Students and parents were left stranded on Friday after the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) results portal went offline just minutes after the release of the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results.
The portal outage occurred at around 11.30am, shortly after Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba officially announced the release of the results and directed candidates to access them online via the KNEC website.
While addressing the press during the results release, Ogamba advised candidates and parents to check the results through the dedicated portal results.knec.ac.ke, where candidates were required to input their index number and any one of their registered names.
“The results will be live and accessible immediately after the end of this function. It is now my humble duty and privilege to declare the 2025 KCSE examination results officially released,” Ogamba said.
However, moments after the declaration, the portal became inaccessible, with users encountering messages indicating that the site could not be reached.
Parents and students voice frustration
The sudden outage triggered widespread frustration, with students and parents taking to social media to complain about their inability to access the results. Some called on KNEC to urgently intervene and stabilise the system.
The government first introduced online access to KCSE results during the 2023 examinations as part of efforts to ease access, supplementing the traditional Short Message Service (SMS) option, which has also faced congestion challenges in past years.
According to officials familiar with the matter, the outage is believed to have been caused by overwhelming traffic, as thousands of candidates, parents, and teachers attempted to access the single portal simultaneously.
What to do if the portal is not loading
Kenyans attempting to access the KCSE 2025 results online have been advised to remain patient, as heavy traffic during results release periods often overwhelms KNEC systems.
Users are encouraged to:
- Retry accessing the portal after some time, preferably outside peak hours
- Refresh the page periodically to check if the site is back online
- Clear browser cache and cookies if the page partially loads or shows errors
- Try a different browser, device, or internet network to rule out local issues
Alternative way to access KCSE 2025 results
Candidates who are unable to access the KNEC portal can still check their results via SMS by sending their KCSE index number to 20076, at a cost of Sh25 per message.
Education officials reiterated that both online and SMS platforms may experience temporary delays during periods of high demand.
KCSE 2025 key statistics
According to figures released by the Ministry of Education:
- 993,226 candidates sat the 2025 KCSE examination
- 492,012 were male (49.54 pc)
- 501,214 were female (50.46 pc)
- 1,932 candidates scored an overall mean grade of A (plain)
- 270,715 candidates attained grade C+ and above, qualifying for direct university entry
