Two government officials attached to the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (Rerec) have been ordered to return salaries paid in the 6 years they collectively worked for the parastatal.
The two were arrested and found guilty of forging academic certificates that they used to get jobs at the government institution.
Pauline Anyango Otieno and Lilian Akoth Ochieng were found guilty of forging education certificates from Mount Kenya University (MKU) and Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) to gain employment and promotions as officers in the procurement department at the state corporation in 2018.
The Anti-Corruption court sitting in Kisumu handed the two a collective jail sentence of six years for the offences.
Magistrate Teresa Odera stated that Otieno will spend two-and-half years in prison while Ochieng will serve three-and-half years for the offences.
The court, however, allowed Otieno and Ochieng to pay Ksh228,698 and Ksh271,901 in fines respectively.
"They faced the following criminal charges: forgery, providing false information to a public entity, deceiving a public entity, uttering a false document; and fraudulent acquisition of public property being the cumulative salary earned on forged certificates," the court documents read in part.
Before the formal employment, the duo had worked in the corporation for 8 years as casual employees.
They were formally employed as Supplies Assistants after forging the academic certificates and prior to investigations, they had worked at the corporation for two months.
In the recent past, questions have been raised over the authenticity of academic certificates presented by some political aspirants ahead of the August polls.
The law requires those competing for the presidency and gubernatorial races to possess university degrees.
Last year, the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA), revealed that 3 in every 10 civil servants used fake certificates to gain employment.
This is an estimated 250,000 civil servants, representing 30 per cent of the civil service workforce.
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