A 54-year-old employee of Kenya Railways Corporation, Awange Oscar Akoth, was arrested in Changamwe, Mombasa County, after a two-year investigation revealed he had used a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) disclosed on August 14 that the arrest followed an internal verification exercise by Kenya Railways targeting academic and professional credentials of its workforce.
During the authentication process, Akoth’s KCSE certificate, which was purportedly issued by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) in 1993, was flagged for further scrutiny. Subsequent checks by KNEC confirmed that certificate number 624785 was indeed forged.
Investigations revealed alterations in grades for three subjects, which were changed from D (Plain) to C (Plain), and the overall mean grade was falsely upgraded from D+ (Plus) to C (Plain).
The case was forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), which authorized charges against Akoth for uttering a false document under Section 353 of the Penal Code and for fraudulent acquisition of public property under Section 45(1)(a) of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act (ACECA).
Akoth had been evading arrest until he was traced and apprehended in Mombasa. He is currently undergoing processing ahead of his arraignment at Milimani Law Courts.
