The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) together with the Kenya National Qualifications of Authority (KNQA) have launched a crackdown on employees with fake academic certificate.
In a meeting held at the DCI headquarters on Tuesday, February 10, the two agencies agreed to form an inter-agency team that would handle fake certificates fraud in Kenya.
In attendance were; KNQA chairman Dr. Kilemi Mwiria, the Director-General of KNQA Dr. Juma Mukhwana and DCI boss George Kinoti.
“We are working with all stakeholders to eradicate this practice that is denying Kenyans with genuine academic documents, an opportunity to benefit from their hard work in school,” Dr Mukhwana stated.
He added that the agency was working with universities, TVET and foreign institutions to ensure that the country had genuine and quality qualifications.
Mukhwana also stated that it was important for the team to work with county governments and other state agencies in order to vet academic certificates presented by their workers.
On his part, DCI boss Kinoti stated that the special team mandated to work with KNQA has enough experience to deal with academic fraud.
The meeting took place days after a report by KNQA indicated that one in every three Kenyans has a fake academic document.
Their report followed the revelation that a Kenyan pilot who had served for eight years had forged a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate to get the job.
Ahmad Nassir Dirie Olow was charged with forging the certificate and attempting to pass it off as genuine.
He is said to have presented the document in 2011 to the Head of Training at Ninety Nines Flying School, Lt. Col. Amin Ali, who is based at Wilson Airport.
