Wilson Sossion: Anyone found employed with fake certificates should be jailed
Former Nominated Member of Parliament (MP) Wilson Sossion has condemned forgery of academic credentials to access employment in Kenya.
Speaking to a local TV station on Thursday, May 22, 2025, Sossion stated that anyone found to have accessed employment using fake academic papers should be prosecuted.
“When scrupulous individuals who are empty of content forge certificates, they are criminals. We must criminalise these enterprises. Anybody found to have accessed any form of employment using fake certificates should be criminalised,” he stated.
Sossion has condemned the practice, saying Kenyans who work hard and achieve good grades should be given priority in employment.
“We condemn vehemently because it is not rewarding merit. The country must reward merit,” he stated.
Similarly, he highlighted the most common forms of forgery of certificates and how they are manufactured in the country
“We know this practice of fraudulent forgery of certificates manufactured in River Road was used by unscrupulous citizens to enter various trainings. The most notorious was Medical Training College (MTC), where form four leavers could alter their grades to meet the minimum requirements of training, undertake training successfully, conclude it and get employed,” he added.
Further, he has called on the employers and government to do an audit of certificates, and those found guilty were criminalised.
“KNEC has a modern system that can confirm results from independence and way back. Employers and the government should be able to do a fresh census and audit of certificates for everybody. Any fraudulent Kenyan who engages in such enterprises should be criminalised,” he stated.
This comes a day after the Head of Public Service and Chief of Staff, Felix Koskei, warned that certificate forgery is a serious breach that jeopardises Kenya’s institutions’ core values of integrity, competence, and meritocracy.
Speaking on May 21 during the 2025 Ethics and Integrity Conference in Nairobi, Koskei stated that the country must confront the vice decisively to safeguard national objectives.
“This vice strikes at the heart of competence and integrity in our institutions,” Koskei said.
EACC data
According to data shared by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), since 2022, the commission has investigated 549 cases of forged academic and professional credentials.
Of these, 85 files have been forwarded for prosecution, resulting in 13 convictions and 7 acquittals.
Beyond legal action, the EACC is also pursuing recovery of salaries and benefits obtained fraudulently by individuals who gained employment using fake documents.
A verification exercise conducted across 91 public institutions has so far unearthed 1,208 forged certificates from a sample of 53,000 cases submitted to the Kenya National Resources Region Council.
The investigation continues, but early findings show the most egregious fraud is concentrated in state corporations and senior government agencies, which account for approximately 70% of the reported forgeries, followed by public universities with 116 cases.
Koskei further revealed that 787 officers in tertiary institutions were found to have used fake documents to secure appointments, promotions, or resignations.
The forgery spans all levels of education, from secondary schools and TVETs to both local and international universities.
