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ADVERTTwo former public employees have been arraigned over alleged use of forged academic and technical certificates, with one accused of earning KSh15.86 million from Nairobi City Water. The cases expose a deeper problem: how did fraudulent credentials pass through recruitment, verification and years of public-service employment undetected?
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has intensified its crackdown on fake academic credentials in Kenya’s public service, arraigning two former employees accused of using forged certificates to secure jobs and access millions of shillings in public salaries.
The latest cases involve John Murira Mwicigi, a former security supervisor at the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC), and Kevine Agweyo Okullo, a former technician at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH).
The two appeared separately before the Milimani Anti-Corruption Court on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, and denied the charges.
According to EACC, Mwicigi allegedly presented a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate purportedly issued by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), claiming he had studied at Githaiga Secondary School.
ADVERTInvestigators allegedly established that he was not a student at the institution.
The commission further alleges that the certificate was used to secure employment at NCWSC, after which Mwicigi received salaries totalling KSh15.86 million between 2007 and December 2023.
EACC considers the alleged earnings fraudulent acquisition of public property and has recommended prosecution for fraudulent acquisition of public property, forgery and uttering a false document.
Okullo faces a different but equally serious set of allegations.
The former KUTRRH technician is accused of submitting a forged Refrigeration Grade II Trade Test Certificate, purportedly issued by the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA), while seeking employment as a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning technician.
He was charged with providing false information, forgery and uttering a false document.
Both suspects are presumed innocent unless and until convicted by a competent court.
They were each released on KSh100,000 cash bail or a KSh1 million bond with a surety of a similar amount.
The bigger scandal is not the certificate
The latest prosecutions should not be viewed merely as another pair of forgery cases.
They point to a far more uncomfortable question about the integrity of Kenya’s public-service recruitment systems: How can a forged certificate be good enough to secure employment, survive internal personnel checks and remain undetected for years?
That is where the real scandal lies.
Forging an academic certificate is an individual act of dishonesty if the allegations are proved. But when such a document is subsequently accepted by a public institution, the problem becomes institutional.
Recruitment processes are designed precisely to prevent unqualified individuals from occupying positions meant for people who have met prescribed academic and professional standards.
Verification should therefore be more than a ceremonial exercise.
The EACC’s previous cases demonstrate that fake credentials have penetrated different levels of the public sector, from drivers and technicians to managers and senior professionals.
In one particularly revealing case, the EACC secured the conviction in 2025 of former NCWSC ICT assistant Lawrence Masinde Barasa, who had used a forged diploma to obtain employment. The court found him guilty on several counts and imposed fines, including a mandatory fine equivalent to twice the amount of public funds fraudulently acquired.
The commission has also prosecuted officials accused of using forged qualifications at institutions including the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), county governments and other public bodies.
This is therefore not an isolated Nairobi Water problem.
It is a governance problem.
The KSh28 million warning shot
The latest prosecutions also come only days after another case that should send shivers through every public-sector human resources department.
Former Office of the Auditor-General Deputy Director of Audit Hannah Wambui Mwaura was charged over allegations that she used a forged Bachelor of Commerce degree certificate purportedly issued by Mount Kenya University to secure employment.
According to EACC’s investigations, the alleged fake qualification helped her obtain an Assistant Manager–Audit position and subsequently rise to Deputy Director of Audit.
The commission says she earned KSh28,468,754.14 in salaries during the period of the alleged fraudulent employment.
EACC’s investigation records show that Mount Kenya University’s academic verification process found the certificate to be fraudulent and that her name did not appear in the institution’s graduation records.
That case raises an even bigger question: if verification can eventually establish that a certificate is fake, why did the system not establish that fact before the appointment and subsequent promotions?
That question deserves answers beyond the courtroom.
A recurring pattern
EACC’s record suggests that forged academic credentials have become a persistent vulnerability within Kenya’s public institutions.
In January 2025, the commission said it had arraigned five public officials within five days over allegations involving forged academic certificates used to obtain employment or career advancement.
Among them was an IEBC driver accused of using a forged KCSE certificate and allegedly earning more than KSh9.28 million in salaries between 2011 and 2024.
The commission has also pursued cases involving senior officials. A former IEBC Manager for Boundaries and Delimitation was accused of using a forged master’s degree to secure a promotion and allegedly accumulated more than KSh37 million in salary and benefits.
Elsewhere, EACC has investigated multiple cases involving alleged forged certificates at Nairobi Water, with some files involving millions of shillings in salaries allegedly earned through fraudulent employment.
The message is unmistakable: fake papers are not merely an examination or education-sector problem. They can become a gateway to public money.
Time for institutions to verify before they hire
Kenya cannot afford a system in which public institutions discover fake credentials only after an employee has collected millions of shillings, received promotions and sometimes occupied sensitive positions for years.
Verification must move from the end of the recruitment process to its centre.
Public institutions should establish robust pre-employment verification systems involving KNEC, universities, technical and vocational institutions and professional regulatory bodies.
Where technology allows, credential verification should be automated and conducted before an appointment letter is issued.
There should also be periodic audits of personnel files, particularly where promotions depend on newly acquired qualifications.
Most importantly, institutions must examine the conduct of the officials who approved questionable credentials.
It is not enough to prosecute the person who allegedly forged a certificate.
If a fake document remained undetected for 10, 15 or even 20 years, investigators should also establish who was responsible for checking it, whether verification was actually conducted, and whether anyone deliberately looked the other way.
Protecting the taxpayer
Every shilling paid to an employee who obtained a public position through fraudulent qualifications is ultimately money taken from the Kenyan taxpayer.
But the loss goes beyond the salary.
A person who allegedly secured a job through fraudulent credentials may have displaced a genuinely qualified Kenyan. The public institution may also have suffered from employing someone who did not possess the qualifications required for the position.
The damage is therefore financial, professional and institutional.
EACC’s increasingly aggressive pursuit of such cases is welcome. Its previous prosecutions show that the commission is moving beyond simply exposing irregularities and is seeking criminal convictions as well as recovery of public funds.
But prosecution should be the final line of defence—not the first time the system discovers a problem.
The uncomfortable question Kenya must answer
The country now needs to ask a simple but uncomfortable question:
How many more forged certificates are sitting in public-service personnel files?
And perhaps an even more important one:
How many genuine graduates have been locked out of public employment by people who allegedly presented fake qualifications?
The latest EACC cases should therefore trigger a comprehensive audit of academic and professional credentials across the public sector—not as a witch-hunt, but as a governance and accountability exercise.
Those found culpable should face the law and, where appropriate, restitution.
Those who knowingly facilitated fraudulent appointments should not escape scrutiny.
And institutions that failed to conduct basic verification should be compelled to explain why.
Kenya has spent decades building elaborate systems of public recruitment, professional certification and financial accountability.
Those systems mean little if a counterfeit certificate can open the door to a government job and remain there long enough to generate millions of shillings in taxpayer-funded salaries.
The EACC cases are consequently about much more than two accused former employees.
They are a warning that public-sector integrity begins with the first document placed on a recruiter’s desk—and that every forged credential that slips through the system represents not only a fraud against the State, but an injustice against every qualified Kenyan who played by the rules.
