A Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company employee has been ordered to pay more than KSh7.5 million after being convicted of using a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate to secure employment.
The Milimani Anti-Corruption Court found Kelly Gichuri Muiruri, a driver at the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC), guilty of four charges relating to the use of fraudulent academic documents.
In a judgment delivered on October 29, 2026, Magistrate Celesa Okore convicted Muiruri of fraudulent acquisition of public property, uttering a false document, deceiving a principal and presenting a forged certificate. However, he was acquitted of the separate charge of forgery.
The court heard that Muiruri presented a KCSE certificate indicating that he had obtained a mean grade of C plain in the 2002 national examinations. Investigations, however, established that he had actually scored a D plain.
The case followed investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) after a report was made alleging that Muiruri had used a fraudulent academic certificate to obtain employment at the public utility company.
After completing its investigations, the commission forwarded the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), recommending that he be charged with the offences.
As part of the sentence, the court ordered Muiruri to pay KSh6,742,673 in compensation, representing salaries he received from the company between November 2016 and December 2023.
The court further directed that he would serve four years in prison if he failed to pay the compensation amount.
In addition, Muiruri was fined a total of KSh800,000 for the four offences. The fines included 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 court ruled that failure to pay the respective fines would attract additional prison terms. These include 12 months for the first offence and eight months for each of the remaining three offences.
The court also directed that the prison terms attached to the four fines would run consecutively.
The total financial penalty and compensation imposed on Muiruri amount to KSh7,542,673.
Following the conviction, the EACC urged employers to strengthen their recruitment procedures by verifying academic and professional qualifications before hiring candidates.
The commission said proper verification of documents was necessary to protect public resources, prevent fraudulent recruitment practices and promote integrity in public service.
