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Hours after Roads Superintendent Kenneth Kamumu Mugo was charged with forging certificates to secure employment,  the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has now called for his suspension from office.

In a letter seen by People Daily addressed to Roads Principal Secretary (PS) Engineer Joseph Mbugua, the anti-graft agency alleged that Mugo forged his Bachelor’s Degree in engineering certificate which he has been using to acquire jobs in various institutions in the country.

The commission now wants Mugo be temporarily kicked out of office claiming that he has continuously for almost a decade fraudulently acquired public property through unlawful employment.

Besides the ongoing prosecution, EACC says it will also recover all the salary and benefits that he has earned from public coffers on the basis of fake qualifications.

 According to the commission, administrative action must be taken against the engineer as stipulated in the Anti-Corruption and Crimes Act of 2003.

Resigned from job

“We seek that as the Principal Secretary, Ministry of Roads and Transport to suspend ‘Engineer’ Kenneth Kamumbu Mugo, currently Superintendent Engineer of Roads, at the State Department of Roads in the Ministry of Roads and Transport, who the Commission found to have forged his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering purporting it to be issued by the University of Nairobi in 2006,” the EACC states.

The forgery allegations against Mugo were first raised in 2016 when he was the director of Roads and Transport in Kiambu County.

 The issue was then forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions who gave consent to charge Mugo for forgery.

After being exposed, Mugo resigned from the position in 2018 but was later appointed as the Superintendent Engineer in the Ministry of Roads in 2020. According to EACC, Mugo in 2009 enrolled for a Post-Graduate Certificate in Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Audit in JKUAT in 2009 using the fake certificate.

He then acquired a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Legislation and Management awarded in 2012 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degree in Environmental Technology, all at JKUAT.

However, upon realization, JKUAT withdrew the Master’s and Postgraduate Certificates which had already been awarded, and discontinued him from the Ph.D. studies.

He was arrested and charged before Kiambu Anti-Corruption Court on December 15, 2023, where he pleaded not guilty.

Mugo was released on a cash bail of Sh500,000. However, the matter will be coming to court for pre-trial on Today, January 15, 2024 for pretrial before Senior Principal Magistrate Peter Ouko of the Kiambu Law courts.

Apart from Mugo’s case, the EACC has said it is currently investigating 153 cases related to fake academic certificates.

The commission said it has identified six categories of academic fraud as the most prevalent in Kenya adding that most cases are at various stages of the criminal justice chain including the courts and before the Office of Director of Public Prosecution, ODPP.

EACC says the fraud include altering high school grades on KCSE certificates to gain entry into the University and impersonating people named on certificates, including the dead, to either apply for admission to learning institutions or seek employment.

The commission also listed the forgery of degree and diploma certificates to secure employment by persons who gain university admission but fail to complete their studies.

“ Persons who enrol for University programs, complete their studies and graduate but alter their degree/diploma classification from second class honours lower division to first-class honours,” the commission states.

The commission further said some individuals have managed to acquire genuine higher qualifications but their only undoing is that they used forged Diplomas and Degree certificates to gain enrollment.

“Persons who have never set foot in any classroom but are fraudulently issued with academic certificates by the Universities. They get all certificates and transcripts; the only thing they lack are former classmates,” Say the anti-graft body.

To tame the menace of fake academic certificates in the country, the EACC called on employers to put in place proper checks and verification mechanisms to detect any forged certificates before recruiting staff.

“Academic Institutions should also strengthen internal controls to effectively tame admission of unqualified persons using fake qualifications from the lower learning institutions,” EACC said.

Further, the commission has encouraged members of the public to continue exposing individuals in possession of fake academic certificates or any learning institution suspected of facilitating the acquisition of fake certificates.

According to EACC, universities and other institutions of higher learning that facilitate the fraudulent acquisition of academic certificates are destroying Kenya’s education system and should stop such malpractices.