Milimani Law Courts./FILE
A former employee of the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) has been fined Sh14.6 million by the Nairobi Anti-Corruption Court after being found guilty of fraudulently acquiring over Sh7 million in salaries and benefits using forged academic papers.
Lawrence Masinde Barasa, who served as an ICT assistant at NCWSC between 2016 and 2023, was convicted on three counts—fraudulent acquisition of public property, uttering a false document, and deceiving a principal.
He was, however, acquitted on a charge of forgery due to lack of sufficient evidence.
The court heard that Barasa presented a forged Diploma in Information Technology certificate, allegedly issued by Eldoret National Polytechnic on September 13, 2010, to secure employment at the water utility. Using the falsified credentials, he drew salaries and benefits totaling Sh7,173,963 over seven years.
Delivering judgment on August 28, 2025, Anti-Corruption Principal Magistrate Charles Ondieki said Barasa’s actions amounted to deceit against the public.
“The accused knowingly used a forged academic certificate to unlawfully benefit from taxpayers’ money. Such deceit undermines integrity in public service and will not be tolerated,” Magistrate Ondieki said.
The magistrate fined Barasa Sh100,000 on the count of fraudulent acquisition of public property and ordered him to pay a mandatory fine of Sh14,347,926—twice the amount he had illegally obtained, as required by law.
In default, he will serve two years in prison.
On the charge of uttering a false document, Barasa was fined Sh100,000 or face a one-year custodial sentence. For deceiving a principal, he was fined Sh100,000 with a default sentence of one year’s imprisonment.
The court further directed that all default custodial sentences would run consecutively.
Barasa had denied the charges throughout the trial, but the prosecution produced evidence that proved beyond a reasonable doubt he had used falsified academic qualifications to secure and retain his job.
The former ICT assistant now has 14 days to appeal both the conviction and the sentence.
