A man who allegedly forged academic certificates to secure a job at the Ministry of Education has been arraigned at Eldoret Law Courts.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Joash Kimurgor Kirwa was the first suspect to be arrested in a crackdown on public servants who used forged academic certificates to secure appointments and promotions.
Kirwa was wanted for the offence of forgery of academic certificates.
He was arrested on February 14.
He is accused of forging a Moi University degree certificate and academic transcripts which he used to secure employment at the State Department for Technical Vocational Education and Training.
“He was today arraigned in Eldoret Law courts in whose jurisdiction he was recruited, where five counts of forgery were preferred against him,’’ DCI said in a statement.
Kirwa pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on a Sh200,000 cash bail with the mention of a pre-trial scheduled for February 26.
The Public Service Commission handed a report bearing 1,280 cases of forged certificates from 91 public institutions and 787 from ministries, state departments and agencies for the DCI and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission for action.
The arrest came two days after an ongoing crackdown on fraudulence within the public service.
"We have those cases before the court and we shall recover the money that the employees who got their jobs fraudulently have been paid for the time they have been working and they will therefore be criminalized," Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission CEO Twalib Mbarak said.
According to the Public Service Commission chairman, Anthony Muchiri, the number of verified forged certificates is not final as the exercise is still ongoing and the PSC expects to receive more cases.
