Kajiado West MP George Sunkuyia arrested over alleged KCSE certificate forgery

Kajiado West Member of Parliament George Sunkuyia. (Photo: Courtesy)

By Maureen Kinyanjui
Tuesday, May 27, 2025

The MP, elected on a UDA ticket, was picked from his home in Nairobi and taken to the EACC headquarters at the Integrity Centre. He is expected to be charged in court as investigations continue.

Kajiado West Member of Parliament George Sunkuyia was on Tuesday morning arrested by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives for allegedly forging his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate.

The MP, elected on a UDA ticket, was picked from his home in Nairobi and taken to the EACC headquarters at the Integrity Centre. He is expected to be charged in court as investigations continue.

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His arrest adds to a growing list of public officials caught in a wave of certificate forgery scandals.

Authorities say the country is facing a disturbing rise in forged academic and professional documents, especially within government offices and institutions.

The issue took centre stage at the 2025 Ethics and Integrity Conference held in Nairobi, where government leaders raised concerns about the threat posed by fake certificates to the credibility of public service.

Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei warned that certificate forgery is a serious breach that endangers the foundations of integrity and competence in Kenya’s institutions.

“This vice strikes at the heart of competence and integrity in our institutions,” Koskei said. “We must confront it decisively to safeguard our national objectives,” he said.

According to the EACC, since 2022, the commission has investigated 549 cases involving forged academic and professional credentials. Out of these, 85 files were forwarded for prosecution, leading to 13 convictions and seven acquittals.

The EACC is also working to recover salaries and benefits obtained through fraudulent qualifications. A verification exercise conducted across 91 public institutions revealed 1,208 forged certificates from a sample of 53,000 submitted cases.

The majority of these forgeries are linked to senior government agencies and state corporations, which account for about 70 per cent of the cases. Public universities follow closely, with 116 reported cases.

Koskei also revealed that 787 individuals in tertiary institutions were found to have secured jobs, promotions, or resigned using fake certificates. The forgeries cut across all levels, from secondary schools and TVETs to local and international universities.

A national values report from 2023–2024 showed that among 358 institutions that audited 168,000 officers, 859 were confirmed to possess fake academic papers, while 160 held fraudulent professional credentials. Another 24,000 had not undergone any certification at all.

“It is unacceptable that graduates with genuine first-class degrees struggle to find work while fraudsters thrive,” Koskei said.

Despite the growing concern, only 49 institutions have reported such cases to the EACC or the Public Service Commission, and only 43 provided supporting documents.

Officials are now urging both public and private employers to take greater responsibility in verifying the credentials of their staff, amid calls for tougher action to stop the widespread fraud.