KCSE candidates at two schools in Moyale were evacuated on Monday morning, 2 November 2026, after stray bullets fired from neighbouring Ethiopia hit Sessi Mixed Secondary School.

Moyale Sub-County Deputy County Commissioner Benedict Munywoki said candidates from Sessi Mixed Secondary School and St Mary's Mixed Secondary School were moved to safer examination centres after the incident, in a phone interview with People Daily.

The schools sit close to the Kenya-Ethiopia border, with some sections an estimated 60 to 100 metres from the boundary, Munywoki said.

The affected candidates are now sitting their examinations at Sessi Primary School, after being transferred to nearby primary schools to continue their papers in safety.

Munywoki said the Kenyan side remained calm, with officers from the Kenya Defence Forces, the Kenya Police and the Administration Police patrolling the area and the border. Activity on the Ethiopian side had temporarily subsided, he said.

The disruption hit the distribution of KCSE papers on the first morning of the main written papers. The affected students were relocated to safer areas, with examinations expected to proceed as scheduled, Kenyans.co.ke reported. The Ministry of Education had not issued any clarification on the matter by the time of that publication.

The incident comes as conflict across the border has pushed more than 40,000 Ethiopians into Kenya seeking safety, according to Kenyans.co.ke's reporting. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights called on 27 October for an urgent humanitarian response to protect those displaced and ease pressure on host communities.

The evacuation happened as a record 1,048,355 candidates began the main KCSE written papers across more than 10,000 centres on Monday. Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba witnessed the opening of an examination container in Nyamira County in the morning. Candidates sat English Paper 1 in the morning and Chemistry Paper 1 in the afternoon. The examinations run to Friday, 20 November 2026.

Sources: People Daily, 2 November 2026; Kenyans.co.ke, 2 November 2026; The Kenya Times, 2 November 2026.