A Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) employee has been convicted of using a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate to secure employment and ordered to pay KSh7.54 million in compensation and fines.
Kelly Gichuri Muiruri, who worked as a driver at the state-owned company, was convicted by the Milimani Anti-Corruption Court on Thursday, October 29, 2026, on four counts relating to the fraudulent use of academic credentials.
In her judgment, Magistrate Celesa Okore found that Muiruri presented a KCSE certificate showing that he had obtained a mean grade of C plain in the 2002 examination, yet his actual result was D plain.
He was convicted of fraudulent acquisition of public property, uttering a false document, deceiving a principal and presenting a forged certificate.
However, the court acquitted him of the separate charge of forgery.
The case followed investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) after a report that Muiruri had secured employment at Nairobi City Water using fraudulent academic qualifications.
Following the investigations, the commission forwarded the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), recommending criminal prosecution.
The court ordered Muiruri to refund KSh6,742,673 in salaries earned between November 2016 and December 2023, failure to which he will serve four years in prison.
He was also fined a total of KSh800,000 across the four counts.
The penalties include KSh300,000 for fraudulent acquisition of public property, KSh200,000 for uttering a false document, KSh200,000 for deceiving a principal and KSh100,000 for presenting a forged certificate.
The fines carry additional prison terms of 12 months, eight months, eight months and eight months, respectively, in default of payment.
The court directed that the default sentences run consecutively.
The total financial penalty and compensation amount to KSh7,542,673.
Following the conviction, the EACC urged employers to strengthen background checks and verify academic and professional qualifications during recruitment to prevent fraudulent appointments and protect public resources.
