Machakos County sacks 121 staff using fake papers

The Machakos county government has sacked 121 employees who used fake certifications to gain employment.

 The move followed an authentication exercise conducted by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) to authenticate the validity of the affected employees’ academic certificates.

Out of the 5,018 certificates verified, KNEC revealed that 121 certificates were fraudulent.

 Addressing the press at his office on Monday, the County Secretary, Muya Ndambuki warned that the number of employees holding fake certificates could be much higher as more cases were still being investigated.

 “This number may go up due to cases under investigations by the same body on the anomalies such as name mismatch. These people do not deserve to be in the public service in the first place,” Ndambuki said.

 He added that they were in contact with individual universities and the Kenya National Qualification Authority to verify the authenticity of the degree and diploma certificates held by some county government employees.

 Ndambuki warned that the county government was determined to weed out public servants with fake certifications and cleanse the public service.

Proffessional qualifications

 “The same process will be repeated and it will be done objectively, fairly but very firmly and in a focused manner going forward. No stone will be left unturned to ensure that we sanitize the public service,” he warned.

 On February 13 this year, the Public Service Commission (PSC) revealed that more than 2,000 public servants were in possession of forged academic and professional qualifications.

 The PSC Chairman Antony Muchiri, urged the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to arrest and prosecute the culprits.

 EACC further warned that it would recover all salaries and benefits earned by officials who used fake qualifications to secure their positions.