President William Ruto's Industry Principal Secretary nominee, Juma Mukhwana, hinted that over 250,000 civil servants with fake certificates might still be actively working in the workforce and drawing salaries.
Appearing before the Trade Committee for vetting on Tuesday, November 15, the PS nominee, who works as the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) director-general, noted that a system created to nab the criminals suffered a blow following a court order barring its implementation.
In June 2021, KNQA discovered that 250,000 civil servants, who made up 30 per cent of the workforce, were operating on forged certificates.
To curb the menace, the team created a system that would allow the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) as well as the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) help KNQA launch a crackdown on the dishonest lot of public servants.
Mukhwana, however, noted that the Authority was dealt a blow after the court barred it from implementing the system due to a lack of public participation.
"Our survey revealed about 30 per cent of academic papers falsified, fake or have somehow been tampered with.
"Before we could roll out the system, we were stopped by the court on grounds of want of public participation. Our hands were tied and we could not clean up the mess," he told the committee.
The directive effectively gave the 250,000 workers a chance to continue reaping salaries and allowances, as KNQA rushed against time to get the system operational.
The certificates cuts across Primary, High School and Tertiary levels of education.
Other organisations that had been linked to the system included the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and other agencies.
The matter was first raised by EACC after receiving over 100 reports claiming that individuals had forged their academic papers.
Six cases that were concluded attracted a combined fine of Ksh9.5 million.
"As at now, we have received about 100 reports regarding falsified academic certificates which are being investigated.
"We have seven active cases, six cases have been concluded and the culprits convicted and recovered Sh9.5 million illegally paid to the individuals,” stated EACC Deputy Chief Executive Abdi Mohamud.
The Kenyan Government has a workforce of roughly 700,000 people hired through the Public Service Commission (PSC).
