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What’s Inside Each Paper?

📘 Paper 1 – Functional Writing, Cloze Test & Oral Skills (60 Marks)

Functional Writing (20 marks):

• Write minutes of a meeting as secretary of the Drama Club:

  • Agenda: Club finances, Launching Drama Club magazine, Meeting with Waigizaji Traveling Theatre Group (WTTG)

  • Ten members attended; Vice Chair sent apologies; two members absent without apology

  • Patron and Director of WTTG attended

  • Proper minutes format required (Heading, Attendance, Preliminaries, Previous Minutes, Matters Arising, Agenda items, AOB, Adjournment, Signing off)

Cloze Test (10 marks):

• Complete a passage on Floods in Kenya, featuring:

  • Early warnings of above-normal rainfall

  • Devastating floods in 40 counties

  • Over 230 deaths and 40,000 households displaced

  • Poor maintenance of infrastructure and drainage systems

  • Government response: evacuations, forced evictions, welfare support

Oral Skills (30 marks):

• Poetry Analysis – Read “O Whisper, O My Soul!” by Claude McKay

  • Facial expression for last two lines (frown to show discomfort)

  • Intonation (falling intonation)

  • Rhythm achieved (rhyme, assonance, alliteration, consonance)

  • Tone (pleading tone)

  • Homophones (feet/feat, wine/whine)

• Word Stress – Indicate stressed syllables (Decided, Abuse, Unaware)

• Sound Grouping – Identify odd word out based on sounds

• Pun Analysis – Identify genre and function

• Giving Directions – Reasons why someone might not reach destination

• Onomatopoeia – Identify examples in text

• Discussion Skills – Evaluate how well a discussion is led; identify shortcomings

📗 Paper 2 – Comprehension, Literary Appreciation & Grammar (80 Marks)

Comprehension (20 marks):

• Read and answer questions on a passage about Diabetes in Kenya

• Topics covered:

  • WHO Director General (Margaret Chan)

  • Definition of diabetes

  • Common diabetes symptoms (frequent urination, intense thirst, weight gain/loss, fatigue, numbness, etc.)

  • Factors driving rise (sedentary lifestyles, stress, overweight, genetic make-up)

  • Consequences of uncontrolled diabetes (heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, gangrene)

  • Vocabulary: screened, predisposed, non-communicable

Literary Appreciation – Excerpt (25 marks):

• Analyze an excerpt from Paul B. Vitta’s Fathers of Nations (Pamela, Abiola, and Femi)

• Key focus areas:

  • Events preceding the excerpt (Afolabi and wife arrive home; houseboy restricts Pamela; she questions him)

  • Name of the man and relationship (Femi, cousin/friend)

  • Why Femi came (Afolabi is childless; relatives think wife is barren; Femi brought a girl to bear children)

  • Stylistic device (dialogue – effectiveness)

  • Why Yoruba was used (exclude Pamela; reveals him as secretive/contemptuous)

  • Mood (tense/anxious)

  • Character traits of Pamela (firm/assertive, dismissive, courageous, temperamental)

  • Impact on Afolabi (separation/divorce)

  • Vocabulary: re-enraged, query

Poetry (20 marks):

• Analyze the poem “At a Window” by Carl Sandburg

• Key focus areas:

  • What the poem is about (exploitation/oppression of masses by leaders)

  • Contrast presented (asks for hunger, pain, want but requests love)

  • Literary devices (symbolism, alliteration, satire, paradox)

  • Tone (critical/satirical)

  • Meaning of title (opening/opportunity providing hope/refuge)

  • Meaning of specific lines (leaders exploit masses; someone to rely on/love)

Grammar (15 marks):

• Sentence transformation (So…that, In spite of, Neither…nor)

• Plural forms (phenomena, syllabi, crises)

• Adjective order (red silk evening, black nylon swimming, blue woolen)

• Word choice (fowl, kernels, council)

• Word formation (nationality, questionable, scarcity)

📙 Paper 3 – Imaginative Composition & Set Text Essays (60 Marks)

Imaginative Composition (20 marks):

• Option A: Write a story beginning with: “Looking up at the sky, I knew everything would be fine.”

• Option B: Write a story illustrating the saying: “Crime does not pay.”

Compulsory Set Text – The Samaritan by John Lara (20 marks):

• Essay topic: “People who engage in wrongdoing cannot escape from the consequences of their actions.”

• Key characters who face consequences:

  • Bembe – Inspector General of Police; corruption, human rights violations, drug peddling; arrested

  • Justice Ian Jaden – Corrupt judge; grain scandal; takes bribes; suffers ulcers; arrested

  • Mayor Mossi – Municipal capture; refuses to launch App; tries to hide corruption; arrested

  • Seymour – Secretary for Planning; bribery, drug trafficking, Black Swan Gang; children ruined; arrested

  • Ramdaye – Deputy Mayor; swindler; sells fake title deeds; arrested

Optional Set Texts (20 marks) – Choose ONE:

Option A: A Man of Awesome Power by Naguib Mahfouz

• Essay topic: “When one is given power, he/she should use it only for good but more often than not, people use it for wrong purpose.”

• Key points:

  • Taxi driver – Uses power for revenge; explodes taxi wheels

  • Bus passenger – Causes severe stomach cramps

  • Radio announcer – Causes uncontrollable sneezing

  • Woman at tea garden – Uses power to seduce

  • Ignores inner voice – Uses power for personal gratification

Option B: Parliament of Owls by Adipo Sidang

• Essay topic: “Misuse of power is a common phenomenon in most African countries.”

• Key points:

  • Money Bags – Grabs sacred tree; enriches himself

  • Killing Arum Tidi – Silences whistleblower

  • Parliament members – Increase compensation while birds starve

  • Eliminating enemies – Kills critics and opponents

Option C: An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

• Essay topic: “Noriko’s marriage negotiations have been used as a means to reveal Ono’s past.”

• Key points:

  • Confession to Saito – Admits role in wartime propaganda

  • Setsuko’s suggestion – She feels father’s past caused collapse of first negotiation

  • Visit to Kuroda – Seeks assurance; thrown out; reminds of betrayal

  • Visit to Matsuda – Seeks assurance about past

  • Free admission – Admits mistakes made in the past