City Hall launches massive audit of staff academic credentials amid rising cases of certificate forgery

Over 17,000 workers at Nairobi City County have been directed to submit their academic and professional credentials for vetting in a process aimed at weeding out fake certificates from the public service.

The County Public Service Board (CPSB) said the exercise, which began last Friday and will run until December 19, 2025, is being conducted in line with a directive from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and a memo from the Public Service Commission (PSC).

“The Board is in receipt of a letter Ref EACC.7/10/1 VOL XXV (25) dated 21st August 2025 from the EACC, quoting PSC Memo Ref. PSC/ADM/VOL.XIV (83) dated 11th March 2024 requiring the Board to undertake an audit for academic and professional certificates for officers within the County Public Service,” the circular reads.

In the memo, CPSB chairman Thomas Kasoa instructed all employees to forward their academic papers to their respective department heads.

“In view of the above, kindly forward us the personal files for all officers in the respective sector as per the above schedule. Also forward any other verification report that has been conducted by the Public Service Sector for our further action,” he said.

The communication was addressed to the County Secretary and head of county public service, with copies sent to Governor Johnson Sakaja, Deputy Governor Njoroge Muchiri, and all chief officers, including the county attorney.

The exercise comes as part of a wider crackdown on fraudulent academic documents in government institutions. Last year, PSC and EACC launched investigations into a fake certificate syndicate that has cost taxpayers nearly half a billion shillings through salaries and allowances paid to individuals who secured jobs using forged papers.

“The commission received and has taken up for investigation a total of 549 reports of forgery of academic and professional certificates. The amount of money we are looking to recover in this exercise is in the region of Sh460 million,” EACC CEO Abdi Mohamud said recently.

The Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) has also been conducting a parallel verification exercise. In April this year, the agency reported that it had identified more than 10,000 fake certificates from different government departments and agencies after receiving 47,000 personnel files from about 400 public institutions.

Head of Public Service Felix Koskei has warned that falsified qualifications remain a serious risk to governance and national progress.

“Appointments and promotions must espouse fair competition and merit, yet we are witnessing falsified certificates across sectors, from national and county governments to parastatals and independent offices,” Koskei said during the 2025 Ethics and Integrity Conference in Nairobi.

He added that a multi-agency task force comprising the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), the EACC, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), and the KNQA had been set up to combat the crisis.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has also exposed irregular hiring of more than 3,800 employees in Governor Sakaja’s administration.

In her report for the financial year 2023/2024, Gathungu revealed that the recruitment process lacked transparency, proper documentation, and compliance with public service requirements. She noted that the county failed to provide advertisements, employment plans, longlists, shortlists, interview reports, or score sheets, making it impossible to establish how the staff were recruited or whether the positions existed within the staff establishment.

“Recruitment was done for cadres that could not be traced in the staff establishment, scheme of services and IPPD. These included Chief Executive Officers for City County Referral Hospitals. In addition, there was no clarity on the minimum requirement of the grade,” Gathungu said.

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The audit further revealed that Nairobi County irregularly paid salaries to former employees who had already been dismissed. Thirteen ex-staff members received backdated salaries for periods of up to two years without justification or disclosure of the total amount paid.

According to the Auditor General, the county also failed to stop salary payments within the required 10-day period as outlined in the Public Service Human Resource Policy, 2016. She added that “Report of absence from duty without leave or reasonable or lawful cause by the immediate supervisor to the Human Resource Department was not submitted within the stipulated timeline of 24 hours of no trace.”

Her report also raised concerns over irregular changes in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD). Some officers’ basic salaries were altered multiple times within the same year, with one officer’s pay revised six times. At least 3,216 officers shifted job groups more than once, while 24 of them changed three times.

In addition, the audit showed that three officers had payroll numbers linked to different national identity cards at various times, 24 officers had payroll numbers connected to different tax PINs, and 197 officers had their birth dates altered repeatedly.