A plumber employed by the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company was arrested for using a fake KCSE certificate he forged 29 years ago to secure a job.
In a statement released on Wednesday, May 13, by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), the water artisan was charged in court for earning a total of Ksh5.9 million in salaries using the forged document.
The employee was presented at the Milimani Anti-Corruption Court, alongside the document he forged in 1997, and was charged with fraudulent acquisition of public property, among other charges.
"The court heard that from August 2015 to December 31, 2023, while working as an artisan at Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Limited, the accused illegally obtained public money, totalling KSh 5,909,037.10, which was his salary earned after getting hired with a fake KCSE certificate that he claimed was issued by KNEC and that the company used to hire him.
"He was charged in Milimani Anti-Corruption Court with the offences of fraudulent acquisition of public property, forgery, uttering a false document, deceiving a principal, and presentation of a forged certificate," the statement read in part.
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The DPP also charged the accused with deceiving the principal and presenting a forged document to gain employment.
According to the DPP, he presented a KCSE certificate purported to be from the Kenya National Examination Council, showing that he had attained a mean grade of C plain.
The suspect pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on a Ksh1 million bond with a similar surety.
The Court also asked him to pay a cash bail of Ksh300,000. The matter will be mentioned on May 27, 2027.
This prosecution of the suspect comes amid concerns that several public servants had secured lucrative jobs with doctored academic qualifications.
On May 7, KNEC announced the introduction of a QR code on KCSE certificates to authenticate the documents instantly. The new development will help both employers and the government during recruitment exercises.
