200 Bunge staff with fake papers sent home

At least 200 staffers have been caught in the crackdown on holders of fake academic papers in Parliament, it has emerged.

The trend shows major moral decay and graft in government employment that is yet to be exposed by the Public Service Commission – the employer of civil servants.

The Star has established that the exercise ordered by the Parliamentary Service Commission more than a year ago has nailed both senior and junior employees.

The revelation has triggered panic in Parliament amid fears that more officers could be affected in the coming days and weeks.

In the audit, Parliament is verifying the authenticity of KCPE, KCSE, diploma, degree and master’s certificates held by its staff.

Currently, the audit has focused on staff on the PSC payroll, with insiders indicating that it will soon be cascaded to those working for MPs in constituency offices.

About 1,300 people are on the PSC payroll. This excludes staff in MPs’ constituency offices.

Among the officers already caught in the fake academic scam include top directors and deputy directors.

They include permanent employees and those on contract.

Some of the affected officers, it is understood, have worked in Parliament for decades and are about to retire. Others are junior employees who were hired about two years ago.

Some of the casualties are aides of top officers in the parliamentary leadership, including those working for some commissioners.

“It is serious. As we speak today, more than 200 people have been sent home. We don’t know what will happen [to them] but they are not here,” a source familiar with the probe in Parliament said.

The Star’s attempts to get a comment from the PSC chairman Moses Wetang’ula, who is also the National Assembly Speaker, were unsuccessful.

He did not respond to the Star’s calls or text messages. PSC commissioners Johnson Muthama, Okong’o Omogeni, John Kinyua and Mohamed Ali also did not respond to enquiries.

“The exercise is going on well but it’s too sensitive. We realised that many people are holding positions they do not deserve because they do not qualify for them,” a commissioner said on condition of anonymity.

Reached for comment, PSC secretary/chief executive officer Jeremiah Nyegenye neither denied nor confirmed the ongoing crackdown.

Instead, he told the Star to seek a comment from Wetang’ula, the commission’s chairman and spokesman.

In an interview with the Star last year, Muthama confirmed the commission had ordered an audit of the academic papers of parliamentary staff.

The audit has been carried out by the Department of Human Resources following a directive by the commission to weed out academic cheats.

It is not immediately clear what actions the PSC plans to take against the fraudsters.

However, insiders say the lot has been given two options, resign or stay and face criminal investigations and its consequences.

Other sources indicate the Wetang’ula-led commission is keen to silently let go of the culprits, as most are senior citizens who have worked for Parliament for many years.

However, some commissioners are said to be unhappy with the idea of letting them go quietly.

They want the group to be handed over to the investigative agencies.

According to the sources, all hell broke loose in Parliament after an aide of a top Parliament leader was found to have used fake certificates to secure his job.

In April this year, President William Ruto told individuals who secured jobs using fake certificates to resign and refund their salaries.

The President said state employees with fake papers are earning money through false pretenses and must resign and pay back the money.

Speaking during the Third National Wage Bill Conference 2024 at the Bomas of Kenya, Ruto said about 2,100 individuals have falsified their academic qualifications to secure government employment.

“A simple audit has revealed that we have 2,100 people with fake certificates working for the government,” he said.

In October 2022, the Public Service Commission wrote to heads of state agencies to verify the academic papers held by their staff.

The investigations were set to be finalised.

However, the final report is yet to be compiled. But Public Service Commission chairman Anthony Muchiri confirmed that many cases of fraudulent papers have already been discovered.

“There are verified cases of forged academic certificates and submission of fraudulently obtained certificates for the award of appointments, promotions or re-designation in the public service,” Muchiri said.

Muchiri said some agencies are yet to take action on staff implicated in forgery.

The commission, however, said that in addition to the dismissal of civil servants found guilty of forgery, it will take legal and administrative action against any public officer found in possession of fake papers.

These are criminal cases and the commission has no powers to handle criminal cases. That’s why we are going to refer them to EACC and DCI to do their work,” he added.

In 2021, the Kenya National Qualifications Authority, the state agency involved in vetting academic certificates, announced that nearly 250,000 civil servants possessed fake certificates.

The authority’s bid to crack down on culprits foundered after the exercise was stopped by a court.

“Our estimate is that 30 per cent of the certificates are fake. It’s very unfair that I sit in a university for four years, and someone else just gets a similar certificate in five minutes,” then KNQA director general Juma Mukhwana told the press.