A senior clerk at the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Limited (NCWSC) has been fined Ksh8.5 million by the Milimani Anti-Graft Court for using a forged academic certificate to secure employment at the government-owned utility firm.
The convict had reportedly used a falsified Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate to gain employment at NCWSC on November 9, 2011.
His forgery enabled him to remain in employment for over a decade, during which he earned over Ksh8 million in salaries and benefits.
According to the Ethics and Anti-Graft Commission (EACC), an investigation was launched after receiving a tip-off regarding the authenticity of his academic documents.
The investigations revealed that the certificate he submitted was not issued by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), as he had claimed.
Upon completion of investigations, EACC handed over the file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), which approved his prosecution. He was subsequently charged with multiple counts, including forgery, fraudulent acquisition of public property, deceiving a principal, and uttering a false document.
Magistrate Selesa Okore of the anti-graft court found him guilty of fraudulent acquisition of public property, with the court noting that he had unlawfully earned a total of Ksh8,243,562 from NCWSC.
He was sentenced to pay a fine equal to the amount lost, Ksh8,243,562, or serve four years in prison.
Additionally, the court imposed fines of Ksh100,000 each for the charges of deceiving a principal and presenting a false certificate, or an alternative two-year sentence for each charge.
In total, he was fined Ksh8,543,562, or he faces up to four years in prison should he fail to pay. The court, however, ordered that all sentences run concurrently.
Meanwhile, EACC welcomed the judgment, maintaining that it sends a strong message against the use of fake documents to access public service jobs, which has been common across various public entities.
Earlier this month, a former Registry Clerk at Nairobi Water was charged with fraudulently using a fake university degree to unlawfully get a job.
EACC confirmed that the former clerk presented a falsified Bachelor of Commerce degree certificate, claiming it was from the University of Nairobi, to secure her position at the water company.
