Common forgeries used by Kenyans to secure government jobs
The report released by the Public Service Commission (PSC) has revealed that thousands of fake academic certificates and professional papers were used to secure state jobs.
As of Tuesday, February 13, PSC Chairperson Anthony Mwaniki Muchiri said that over 2,000 cases had been recorded in the ongoing audit across the government institutions.
Ambassador Muchiri said that the number could go higher as the audit exercise continues across all the government institutions.
“787 officers have been verified to have used forged certificates to procure appointment, promotions, or redesignation, bringing a total of almost 2,000 plus of forged certificates, and documentation,” Amb. Muchiri said.
Among the most common types of forgery that the auditing team revealed to be common among unqualified public servants includes alteration of KCPE mean grades, where the individuals raise their mean grades.
Another type of forgery is fake KCSE certificates.
The Commission revealed that most cases which were found include a scenario where the alleged candidates produced their KCSE certificates yet in the real sense, they never sat for that paper but they managed to produce one for appointment.
Cases of fake certificates were been captured by the auditing team, where the alleged institutions that were said to have issued such certificates disowned them.
Also, the said institutions that were alleged to have issued such certificates confirmed that they never registered such candidates.
According to the Chairperson, the investigation team established that the culprits who claimed to have sat for certain examinations were found to be lying when in the real sense they never did any.
It was also revealed that cases of forged Bachelor’s Degree Certificates Division (Lower) to reflect Second Division (Upper) were rampant in the public sector.
The established cases have been handed over to the investigation bodies to take over and take action against the culprits.
A big challenge to the investigation team is that the culprits have opted to take early retirement even before the action is taken upon them.
The issue of fake academic papers in the country was also highlighted in January by Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, when he said that the country was planning to suspend the degrees acquired by Nigerians from educational institutions in Kenya and Uganda.