2,000 Public Servants To Loose Jobs For Academic Forgery

NAIROBI, February 14 – Thousands of public servants are expected to loose jobs in Kenya as well as arraigned  in court for committing academic fraud. This comes as a report on audit of academic qualification among public servants was presented to Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) by the Public Service.

The report revealed huge number of public servants who forged their academic certificate in order to secure employment. According to the report, 53,000 certificate have been flagged and directed to Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) for verification.  Out of this, 1,280 certificates were found to have been forged.

More than 2,000 public servants are now under investigation for academic forgery. They are at the risk of loosing jobs, properties and pensions acquired during employment.

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Public Service Chairman Antony Muchiri said that “the number [of forged certificates] is not final” and that they “expect to receive more cases.” Muchiri said that an officer who secured appointment through fake or forged certificate has no integrity and can easily get involved in corruption.

“An officer who secured appointment or promotion on the basis of fake academic qualifications has no integrity at all and will definitely have a higher propensity for corruption,” Muchiri said.

Institutions with most forgeries

Ministry of Interior is leading with the most academic forgeries followed by Geothermal Power Stations. Kenya’s top hospitals, that is Kenyatta National Referral Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital also has a significant number of workers with forged academic certificates.

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Ethics and Anti-Corruption Chairman Twalib Mbarak stated that those found with forged certificates will be arraigned in court and they shall recover the money paid to them.

“We have those cases before the court and we shall recover the money that you have been paid all that time and there will be a criminal aspect about it,” Mbarak said, adding that they are still pursuing governors who are alleged to be in possession of fake academic papers.

Reasons and how it was forged

 According to the report,  investigated public servants forged academic papers in order to procure appointment, promotion or re-designation in the public service. Out of 29,314 cases that have been investigated 787 were verified to have been forged.  

The common ways of forgery revealed in the report includes alteration of grades, forged KCSE certificates where candidates never sat for exams, fake certificates disowned by learning institutions and non-registered candidates possessing exams certificates.

Public Service Chairman termed this academic forgery as a “tumor” in the society and that they will not relent until they remove it.