Three government employees were on Friday arraigned for possessing forged academic certificates, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has said.
The three, employees of the Sports, Arts and Social Development Funds (SASDF), were charged with forgery, making a document without authority and uttering a false document at the Milimani Law Courts.
According to the DCI, John Onyango Odhiambo, 44, Adan Bagajo Lamma, 44, and George Ereng Lotieng, 35, who were employed as drivers, submitted fake papers to enhance their pay grade.
“John Onyango had submitted a falsified 2011 KCSE (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education) certificate from Starays Hope Community Center, Nairobi, while Adan Lamma presented a counterfeit 1998 KCSE certificate from Marsabit Boys High School despite having dropped out in form two,” DCI stated.
“Similarly, George Ereng Lotieng submitted a forged KCSE certificate from St. Marks Boys High School, Cherangany, where he had also dropped out in form two.”
DCI says that a report from the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) revealed that John Onyango manipulated the grades of all the subjects he had taken to achieve a mean grade of D+ in order to meet the qualification threshold for the job.
“As for Adan, he had neither registered nor sat the said exam since the centre (Marsabit Boys) under code 501512 did not exist during the 1998 KCSE examinations. Such was the case with George Ereng, whose alleged centre of examination (St. Mark Boys High School) did not exist as of 2010, and the code indicated in his certificate (401057) belonged to a different school, Ruthimitu Secondary,” DCI added.
Fake academic certificates in government
According to the Public Service Commission, more than 2,000 government employees are culpable of using forged academic and professional qualifications to secure jobs or earn promotions.
“Meanwhile, the DCI is working closely with other government agencies to investigate the cases,” the crime busters stated.
The three add to a growing number of public servants who have been arraigned for having fake academic certificates.
