Kenya National Qualifications Authority CEO Juma Mukhwana gives his speech during a ceremony at Kasneb Towers, Nairobi, on October 11, 2019.
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Why fake academic papers continue to be ‘hot cake’
Early this year, a human resources manager at a state corporation was charged with forging documents to secure a job.
Appearing before Milimani Anti-Corruption Court Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti, she was charged with 13 counts of forgery and fraud.
The charge noted that on unknown dates and with intent to defraud, she made a university degree certificate for a Bachelor of Science in International Business, purporting it to be genuine and issued by United States International University Africa (USIU-Africa) on June 17, 2000.
She was also charged with forging academic transcripts for the years 1997 to 2000, purporting them to have been issued by USIU-Africa, besides presenting the false documents at her employer’s Nairobi offices between November 10, 2012 and January 17, 2013.
The HR manager was also accused of making and presenting a fake Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education with a mean grade of B – (minus) from Solian Girls High School, and claiming that it had been issued by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) in 1996.
Other counts of forgery explain that she made an exemption letter dated June 29, 2008, claiming it was genuine and issued by the Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examination Board.
On January 31, 2018, she is said to have provided false information at the firm's offices when she submitted an application letter for the position of principal human resource officer, alleging her university certificate was genuine.
Between September 2011 to September 2018, she was also alleged to have fraudulently acquired public property in salaries of Sh10,090,249 million from the company, and Sh934,504 from the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), where she was employed from July 1, 2001 to May 16, 2005. She was accused of having used fake papers to secure employment with KWS.
Also read: Juja seat candidate faces forgery charges
Nandi doctor
The arrest of Ronald Melly, a fake doctor from Nandi county, caused a public uproar when Health ministry officials revealed the details in their report, which they tabled in the assembly.
Melly had conducted eight successful surgical operations at the Kapsabet County Referral Hospital before he was transferred to head Meteitei Sub-County hospital. He had had only one fatality, in a maternity case where the mother had complications, but the baby had been saved.
While speaking about the case then, Nandi Governor Cleophas Lagat had explained that the county only received doctors seconded from the national government. He had then ordered that all staff be vetted.
Melly’s family had divulged that the fake doctor had attended Tinderet Boys Secondary School where he obtained a mean grade C-. He had then proceeded to Nairobi on a job search. They (family) said they thought he worked in a general office, but not as a doctor since he never had any medical training.
He has since been charged and sentenced to a four-year jail term, with the option of Sh5,130,000 fine for pretending to be a doctor and attempting to forge registration at the Kenya Medical Practitioners & Dentists Board in 2016
Besides this, another public uproar when a fake pilot, whose identity still remains unknown, was exposed by a local TV station. He had flown passengers for eight years with a fake KCSE B+ certificate, claiming that he had enrolled in a Kenyan aviation college.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) had written to the DCI, revealing that the said pilot was not licensed by the regulator to fly a commercial flight. He had, however, applied for and was issued a student pilot’s licence in 2011, and it had expired in 2013.
KCAA said it does not participate in verifying documents submitted to it by an aviation school, and therefore, it was the aviation school’s responsibility to vet the student’s eligibility.
Advantage of technology
In this age of technology and ICT, one only needs a smartphone and internet, where a quick search will land you on various websites where designers of fake certificates await, with their phone numbers and email addresses plastered all over.
One such website, promises to get the client fake certificates for degree, diploma, primary and secondary school levels. Their invite reads:
“There are hundreds of reasons that will prompt you to acquire a fake certificate or a document. You might have lost your original documents and the process of replacing them via the right channels seems a nightmare. What about that job that you need but you are short of papers? What about verification processes that requires you to send copies of your documents? I cannot exhaust them all. Sometimes, this is the only way to go!”
It goes ahead to detail that the reason people go for fake certificates is to secure a job, to honour their academic image, and to secure services like travel permits and licences.
“Entirely, this business is illegal and you need to tread carefully,” it also warns.
On the site, KCSE and Kasneb certificates, and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees each cost Sh6,000, while a KCPE and diploma certificate each goes for Sh5,000. A degree certificate with transcripts costs Sh7,500, while a diploma certificate with transcripts costs Sh6,500. A soft copy certificate and transcripts cost Sh4,000.
To ensure that the certificates look as real as possible, they come complete with a seal, signature of the course director, certificate reference number and date of issue.
“Certificates are only paid for after the client’s approval. It is after approval that the certificate is printed. Mode of delivery will be via local goods (parcel) delivery services such as G4S, Posta among others. Delivery is countrywide. You will pass any verification of the documents as we have a 95 per cent originality level. Printing papers are 100 per cent original,” reads the website.
Another explains that they give even fake tittle deeds and log books.
“With us you get to see the certificate first before you pay."
DCI crackdown
Early this year, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations started a crackdown on fake certificate holders in formal jobs, saying that they will partner with the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) to mark out the fraudsters.
On January 2021, Dr Juma Mukhwana, the director general of KNQA said currently, 10 to 15 per cent of all qualifications in Kenya are fake, fraudulent or falsified.
“This is because we have no central repository of all our qualifications where one can check and query easily. We are developing the National Qualifications Information Management System, which is going to be a one-stop database of all our qualifications from the basic, TVET and university sectors. This will help improve checking of fake certificates using information technology and mobile technology,” said Dr Mukhwana.
He stated that the institution has also established a department that has developed national policies and standards for managing fake and fraudulent qualifications. The authority currently runs a service of verifying qualifications for employers, training institutions and other stakeholders.
The work of the KNQA is to develop, implement and monitor national policies and standards on accreditation, quality assurance and examinations.
On its website, KNQA explains that the business of fake academic certificates is only a small part of the problem, because “some people who have genuine certificates, falsify their academic transcripts or even the final grade or classification of the qualification”. It details that in the recent past, counterfeiting of qualifications has been made easier through ICT and related technologies.
“It is generally thought that fake credentials are becoming more common in Kenya. And here, they take the form of buying fake academic certificates, falsified documents, using documents that belong to other people, and certificates issued by colleges and universities that do not have mandate to do so.
The authority notes that before enactment of the KNQA Act of 2014, there was no centralised place for reporting of fake certificates in the country, which in turn undermined the legitimacy and reputation of educational institutions and robed honest candidates of opportunities for further education and/or employment.
“For colleges and universities, fake qualifications pose a reputational risk – as other colleges, countries and employers do not trust their qualifications. If students with fake certificates from a specific college manage to gain entry on a falsified transcript, their performance will be below standard. Future applicants from that college or university may be disadvantaged by association. This also poses a risk to university selection criteria data and policy, as it damages the validity of using prior academic records from universities and colleges across the country as a predictor of success,” reads the notice.
It adds that a high prevalence of fraudulent qualifications has increased the tendency for universities to hire their own students mostly – for further study, or even employment, rather than recruiting from further afield. That’s because students who’ve already been trained by the institution are more easily verified and represent a known entity.
As far as politicians go, those with fake academic papers from unaccredited learning institutions are on their way out, as they will not be able to secure clearance to vie in 2022 General Election.
“We are working with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to vet academic papers presented by aspirants. It will seal a loophole used by politicians with questionable credentials to run for public office,” said Dr Kilemi Mwiria, the KNQA Chairman.
“We are here to seek collaboration so that any candidate that will be seeking elective positions, among others, have their academic certificates vetted. We have the required expertise to handle the vetting of the academic documents,” said Dr Mwiria.
The law requires aspiring members of Parliament and members of county assembly to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree before they are cleared to contest. Initially, politicians were not required to have a certificate after their secondary education to contest for MP and MCA seats. Only the President, deputy president, governors and deputy governors were required to be university graduates.
