The results were announced on Monday by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha at the KNEC headquarters, where education stakeholders had gathered.
Magoha held a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, where he debriefed him before the release.
The CS said the top candidate had 440 marks, followed by three other candidates who tied in the second position with 439 marks.
The top candidate was announced as Master Andy Micheal Muchiri from Thogoto.
Flavian Onyango, June Cheptoo and Sign Micheal tied in second place.
Magoha said the number of candidates who scored 400 and above marks had however dropped from over 11,000 to 9,770.
Individual candidates’ results can also be accessed by sending an SMS containing the candidate’s Index Number followed by KCPE to 20076.
Last year, 50 per cent of the candidates scored over 200 marks, with two tying at the top scooping 453 marks each.
Some 1,088,986 candidates sat for the exam compared to last year's 1,052,364. The exam started on October 29 and was completed on October 31.
The candidates were examined in seven subjects tested in nine papers in some 27,827 examination centres.
Three examiners lost their lives during the examination period. A total of 181,016 personnel were involved in managing the exams.
The marking of the examination was concluded on Friday and was done by 6,440 examiners for English composition and Kiswahili Insha papers.
Teacher Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia said the examination process was largely credible.
She however said there were isolated cases in which students and examiners were arrested engaging in cheating and other exam malpractices.
As a result she said 56 teachers are under investigations.
Amid efforts to tame malpractice, Magoha banned all non-academic events in schools during third term.
He warned candidates and teachers from engaging in activities that might amount to examination malpractice.
The was a reinforcement of orders put in place by former Education CS Fred Matiang’i to curb cheating in 2016.
Matiang’i then issued an order banning candidates from proceeding to mid-term breaks and barred the traditional practice of prayer days that were conducted weeks before the examination.
