How County Employee Faked KCSE Certificate to Pocket Ksh7.5 Million

A staff member of the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Limited (NCWSC) has been charged with forgery and fraudulent acquisition of public property after it emerged that she acquired her positions using a fake certificate.
The suspect, who served in various different roles including as a revenue collection assistant, technician and marketing assistant, was presented before the Milimani Anti-Corruption Court on Wednesday to answer to the charges of acquiring property amounting to Ksh7.5 million through fraudulent means.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) accused the suspect of forging her academic certificates and using them to gain employment fraudulently, thereby earning salaries over a 10-year period.
Court documents also revealed that the suspect had forged her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) with a fake name, falsely claiming to have achieved a mean grade of C+ in the national exam.
However, the certificate presented, as issued by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), was found to be fake.
The prosecution told the court that, between March 1, 2013 and December 31, 2023, the suspect received Ksh7,590,872 in salaries from the NCWSC. She would never have been entitled to these funds had she not used a forged academic certificate.
In addition to the forgery allegations, the suspect also faced charges of uttering a false document and deceiving a principal, acts which were in contravention section 41(2) of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.
The act specifically states that “An agent who, to the detriment of his principal, uses, or gives to his principal, a document that he knows contains anything that is false or misleading in any material respect is guilty of an offence.”
On or about September 18 2017, it is alleged that the suspect knowingly submitted the forged KCSE certificate to the Nairobi Water HR office , falsely claiming the academic qualification while filling out a personnel record form.
She denied all charges before Principal Magistrate Charles Ondieki and was granted bond of Ksh500,000 with one surety of the same amount.
Alternatively, she can pay a cash bail of Ksh100,000 and provide two verifiable contact persons whose details will be filed in court.  The case is set for mention on September 3 for further directions.
The case mirrored a similar one in June 2025, where an IEBC official was among five public servants arrestedin a fake certificate crackdown.
The suspects, who are employees or former employeesof various public institutions,are accused of using falsified academic qualifications to secure employment and/or promotions, resulting in the fraudulent acquisition of public funds amounting to tens of millions of shillings.