KNEC KCSE English Paper 2 Question Paper / 2016 KCSE MOKASA Joint Examination

Recently a friend remarked to a group of us that Kenyans love inspiration but are not too hot on
perspiration. This, of course, comes from the saying that success is one percent inspiration and
99 percent perspiration. The true meaning of this saying seems lost to many Kenyans today, who
are seeking 99 percent inspiration – whom I shall call the 99ners.

If you had doubt on the abundance of 99ners in our society, please take the time to observe them
in action. The first lot will be found in churches, where gullible believers are persuaded to plant
‘seed’ with pastors, so that from such seed shall come an abundance of fruit. Of course, the fruit
comes in the form of palatial homes, top-of-the –range cars, and business class air travel for the
pastors, but the poor ‘seed’ planters mostly come up empty handed. However, they continue to
be encouraged by the fruit-eaters to keep planting more seed so that one day, they too may
achieve their ‘breakthrough’.

The second lot includes the various dreamers and sometimes entrepreneurs who have excellent
visions and ideas of doing business. They are excellent at thinking up new things and new ways
of doing the obvious, but are unable to turn these into a proper business that actually makes
money. Among this lot are our budding information technology start-ups that constantly burst on
to the scene with new apps and technologies, but rarely become a going business.

The reasons may be many. We have a few angel or venture capitalists, our markets are small and
our people think local rather than glocal, and we have few mentors to help these mainly young
people succeed. But I suspect the greatest impediment to growth for these great ideas is the
geniuses behind the mistake making the app or technology for the 99 percent, instead of the 1
percent achievement that really is.

A third lot is that of rich individuals whose source of income and wealth remains mysterious.
Typically, they have no specific businesses or farms they own and run, do not seem to have
shares in any public or private companies, or any investments one can put their fingers on. Some
are associated with corruption, others are said to dabble in unmentionable enterprises, while
others still are said to be beneficiaries of diabolic oaths and practices – the converse of the seed
planters in their choice of deities and spirits. This is the only lot of the three that has loads of
money to dish around.

The fourth lot is those individuals who do nothing but believe their siblings, parents, and
relatives owe them a living. They blame everything, tribe, gender, religion, and even deities for
the fact that they don’t seem able to get or keep jobs. Despite this small fact, they expect to live
their full life on other people’s money, and carry themselves with a strong element of entitlement
to a good life at other people’s expense. Then we have the thieves and robbers, beggars, and all
other elements of our society that want to live on others’ earnings.

The main concern is that we seem to have taken up a culture that seems to prefer these 99ners
and see them as smarter than folks who believe in sweating for their livelihood. The hardworking
people in all walks are looked down upon as not being ‘very smart’ because the fruits of their
honest labour look modest compared to that obtained by our 99ners. They are mocked and
laughed at, while the 99ners become the socialites, opinion leaders, and even political leaders.
We need, as Kenyans, to ask ourselves a very basic question – why would anyone, or any society, want to admire or imitate such folks, and yet we all know or are supposed to know there
is no lasting or true success without hard work. One wonders how we can admire and aspire to
become like Singapore, Japan, South Korea, or even America and Europe, without realizing that
those countries, their chequered histories taken into account, are largely built on cultures that
prize enterprise, thrift, and hard work. Indeed, there are no known short-cuts to becoming a
developed country, and the values we are beginning to admire and adopt cannot become the
foundation and roadmap to national economic and social prosperity.

In fact, if one looks at our key challenges – corruption, insecurity, poverty, ethnicity, and
unemployment – Kenya will need to go back to its initial motto of Uhuru na Kazi. Liberty will
spark the one percent inspiration to solve these problems by identifying the so-called ‘killer
apps’, followed by 99 percent perspiration in the form of focused, tenacious and disciplined
striving over the next three to four decades to transform our country into a world class country.
a) Explain the irony in the first paragraph. (2 Marks)
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b) Who are the 99ners? Cite the evidence that the Kenyan society is full of them. (2 Marks)
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c) Explain how ‘seed’ planting works and for whose benefit. (2 Marks)
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d) Briefly describe the various groups that the writer discusses in the passage. Give your answer
in about 60 words. (5 Marks)
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e) Describe the attitude of the writer towards the 99ners and to Kenyans generally. (2 Marks)
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f) What characterizes the culture which encourages and ensures a country’s true success?
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g) If you had doubt on the abundance of 99ners in our society, please take the time to observe
them in action. (Rewrite, beginning, Should …) (1 Mark)
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h) Why do dreamers and entrepreneurs fail to actualize their visions? (2 Marks)
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i) Explain the meaning of the following as used in the passage. (2 Marks)
(ii) gullible believers……………………………………………………………………………….
(iv) diabolic oaths and practices………………………………………………………………….

Nyabera was full of bitterness and she decided that a change was necessary. For her there was
obviously not meant to be the comfort of a husband and children around her knees. When it
came to making ruthless decision, she equalled her mother. She would cut herself off from her
people. She would seek another life, a different way. She had had enough. For the first time she
felt quite lucky to have a daughter. A son held one under much more obligation than di a
daughter for he must be firmly rooted in his people from whom he would inherit land and from
whom he was inherit land and from whom he was inextricable. You might wander the world
with your son but in the end you had to take him back to where he belonged – his father’s
people. A girl, on the other hand, was a wanderer who would settle anywhere and marry
anywhere. Nyabera felt free to go.

Now in that village, a man had once come dressed in a white robe and speaking of a new
God who made meaning out of sorrow and suffering and who particularly liked the poor, the
orphan and widow. The man said the latter two were poor in spirit, for having no earthly
support, they could better trust in God. In fact he said that this God so loved people that he had
sent his only son to live, suffer and die like man. Nyabera had had to leave at that point to attend
to her chores. In any case she had only listened with half an ear, but having a retentive mind, she
had occasionally mulled over his words wondering what he might have meant. Two villagers
had gone with the man – one a barren woman who was totally neglected by her husband; the
other a man, one of the footloose types found in every village. The man returned a year latersporting a new name Pilipo – but what he said made no sense and no one took him seriously.
The woman never returned.
Nyabera looked up this man and talked to him at length using his new name, much to his
delight. His tongue was further loosened by a pot of beer and a tough looking cockerel which
rolled its beady eyes in disbelief each time the man launched into the different parts of his tale.
“Pilipo,” began Nyabera, “I know you are a much travelled man. You have
learned the new religion of the white man and in gratitude they have given you a new
name.”
“Yes, yes!” replied Pilipo reaching eagerly for the pot. “But I can tell you it is
hard. Very, very hard, I failed several times to answer the questions they asked me but
eventually I got the hang of it.”
“Were they kind?”
“Yes, very kind but they made me work so hard.” Pilipo did not like work at all.
“What did they teach you?”
“Hard-things my sister. I doubt a woman could understand them.”
“You mean there were no women?”
“Er…er….of course there were women. In fact there were more women than
men.”
“So what did you learn?”
“Er…about a God-man called Kristo who was the son of God, his father. He
came to die for our sins, to save us. His mother was called Maria – and she was very
pure. They said something about God being three but only one but I didn’t understand
that very well.”
a. Plan the excerpt in its immediate context (5 marks)
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b. Describe any two aspects of Nyabera’s character brought out in this excerpt (4 marks)
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c. Highlight the dominant character trait of Pilipo (2 marks)
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d. Highlight two major themes (4 marks)
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e. From elsewhere in the text, Nyabera says “You know my life is a painful wound to
me and much as I try …” In note form, identify the suffering Nyabera has gone
through (3 marks)
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f. Nyabera felt free to go. Add a question tag (1 mark)
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g. Using illustrations, identify two stylistic devices used in the excerpt and show their
effectiveness (4 marks)
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h. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases as used in the excerpt
(2 marks)
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(ii) Inextricable…………………………………………………………………….

Operating Room, By John Reed
Sunlight floods the shiny many-windowed place,
Coldly glinting on flawless steel under glass,
And blaring imperially on the spattered gules
Where kneeling men grunt as they swab the floor.
Startled eyes of nurses swish by noiselessly,
Orderlies with cropped heads swagger like murderers;
And three surgeons, robed and masked mysteriously,
Lounge gossiping of guts, and wish it were lunch-time.
Beyond the porcelain door, screaming mounts crescendo
Case 4001 coming out of the ether,
Born again half a man, to spend his life in bed.
a) Describe the setting of the poem. (3 Marks)
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b) Briefly explain what the poem is talking about. (4 Marks)
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c) Who is the persona in the poem? (2 Marks)
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d) Illustrate the use of the following styles and state their effectiveness. (4 Marks)
i. Metaphor
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ii. Hyperbole
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e) What is the tone of the poem? (2 Marks)
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f) Discuss the general mood of the poem. (2 Marks)
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g) Why do the men grunt as they swab the floor? (1 Mark)
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h) Explain the meaning of the following phrases as used in the poem. (2 Marks)
i) Robed and masked mysteriously
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ii) Case 40001 coming out of ether
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Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions given. (3 marks)
i. There are eleven players in a football team. (Begin: A football…)
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ii. ii. You said Anna might take a different class the following day. (Write in direct speech)
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iii. The book donated by the state will be ………………………………. to the primary
school pupils.( use the correct form of the word: value)

Replace the underlined words with the appropriate phrasal verbs. (2 Marks)
i. Where can I fit the sweater?
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ii. She wants to discover the truth.
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Fill in the gaps in the following sentences with the correct article
i. ……………. one Mr Mwangi is calling you.
ii. ii. He loved going to ……………………… Netherlands.

Provide the most appropriate preposition in the following sentences.
i. The exercise was conducted accordance …………………the regulations.
ii. When you smile ……………… me like that, I’ll do anything for you.

iii. Akinyi arrived at the airport just ……………time to catch the plane.

Use the adjectives provided in brackets in their correct orders
i. Derek likes the…………………………………………………… bags. (Stringed, brown,
tea, Kenyan)
ii. East Africa has ………………………………………………………. forces. (Combined,
military, powerful)

Punctuate the following sentences correctly
i. the art of writing by patel shamji is a good book for upcoming writers
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ii. i ate irio yesterday
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Use the verb below transitively to construct a sentence.
Describe
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