The Public Service Commission (PSC) has revealed that there are some public servants in critical government parastatals who acquired their positions using fake certificates.
The alarming revelation, according to PSC’s announcement on Tuesday, shows that most of the individuals are in the Ministry of Interior, the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) and the Geothermal and Development Corporation, a parastatal under the Ministry of Energy.
Addressing the media, PSC Chairman Ambassador Anthony Muchiri said that the aforementioned individuals are part of 2,067 forgery cases discovered in an investigation they launched in October 2022.
The probe targeted 331 institutions among them 52 Ministries, State Departments and Agencies (MDAs), 239 State corporations and Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies and 40 public universities.
The probed institutions were required to submit lists of graduands in the last 10 years, submit lists of graduands in subsequent graduations at the end of every calendar year and also provide the commission with access and verification credentials for online verification of job-seeking candidates’ academic and professional certificates.
Despite only 195 complying, 1,280 cases referred to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) out of the submitted 58,599 cases were found to be forged.
“This number is not final as the authentication exercise is still ongoing and we expect to receive more cases of forgeries,” said Muchiri.
Additionally, 787 officers in Ministries, State Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have been found to have secured appointments and promotions in the public service using forged documents – MDAs include universities and tertiary institutions.
The common types of forgeries discovered include alteration of KCSE mean grades, forged KCSE certificates by those who did not sit the exam, fake education certificates while others were found to have never sat the alleged examinations or registered as candidates.
Other forgery types include certificate numbers of submitted certificates that did not belong to the alleged owner and names on some certificates that were faked – where the culprit’s name is different from the real owner.
Some Bachelors Degree certificates Second Division (Lower) were also found to have been altered to reflect Second Division (Upper).
PSC has therefore recommended that all cases should be referred to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for prosecution and recovery of money and assets gained from the fraudulent positions.
They also want all persons of interest to be denied any form of benefits including pensions, allowances or leave.
The report has been handed over to DCI and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for further action.
