Nairobi News

During the national wage bill meeting attended by President William Ruto, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Nairobi and Kirinyaga Governors Johnson Sakaja and Anne Waiguru; and a host of other leaders and delegates in Nairobi, DP Gachagua- popularly referred to as Riggy G, spoke on civil service officials who were allegedly employed using fake academic papers.

Standing just in front of Sakaja and Waiguru, Riggy G did not mince his words when he said there were some county bosses in office with fake papers, intimating that they could be among the reasons why the public wage bill was high.

“Your Excellency, I cannot sit here and purport to give you advice but this issue of fake certificates, I think it is a quick win for us. If we make a decision to get rid of all the fellows and characters with fake certificates, probably we could lock out 10,000 people from the wage bill and recover a billion or two. But Your Excellency, that is a hard task. I don’t know where you will begin because I don’t see anyone else being able to handle this because it requires a decision at your level. And I don’t know who will help you because, your are my guy I must tell you the truth.

There are many people in government, some are governors, others are heads of departments, others are seated there (in the audience), others here (on the dais where President Ruto sat with a host of politicians), some are seated with you here- there are problems with their academic papers. So, you will have to make a decision and I don’t know who will help you- maybe Musalia Mudavadi because I saw him study. I was also there,” said DP Gachagua on April 17, 2024.

During his speech, Riggy G’s utterances left Hussein Mohammed, the State House Spokesperson, dumbfounded and holding his head in shock and staring at the ground.

Mr Mohammed was seated behind President Ruto and his reaction was evident; and has since gone viral. He started out listening keenly to Riggy G, smiling awkwardly then sat forward on his seat, placing his hands on his knees and cradling his head and occasionally staring at Governor Sakaja with sly eyes.

His reactions could be attributed to the fact that Governor Sakaja- seated one seat away from President Ruto – once had his University academic papers questioned.

During Sakaja’s vetting prior to being cleared to vie for the gubernatorial seat, there was public and opposition uproar over his qualifications.

His papers’ authenticity spark debates to date after Sakaja claimed to have attained one from a little known campus in Uganda.

In the end, however, Sakaja was cleared to vie after he moved to the High Court to oppose a petition brought against the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission for clearing him to vie despite his ‘problematic’ university papers.

At the end of the day, as President Ruto spoke at the wage bill conference at Bomas, he said that anyone found to be working in government with fake academic papers would be required to refund all the monies they received as salaries and other allowances.

Governor Sakaja is not the only senior government official to have been flagged to have questionable academic papers in the Kenya Kwanza government.

Recently, the ward administrator for Marsabit Central, Halkano Dabasso was arrested by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives for allegedly using forged academic papers.

The EACC also charged a former General Manager, Finance and ICT at Rural Electrification and Renewal Energy Corporation (REREC), Noah Oluoch Oketch on allegation of forgery of academic certificates.

EACC has also arrested Dolal Mohamed Mohamud, the Managing Director of Garissa Water and Sewage Company over allegations of forging his academic papers.

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