A former Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) employee has been handed an 11-year prison sentence or fines after the Anti-Corruption Court found him guilty of using forged academic and disability certificates to secure employment, earn millions of shillings and obtain tax exemptions.
David Mogire Nyabuti was convicted over offences committed during his employment at the state-owned power company between August 2003 and September 2018, including fraudulently acquiring public property and using false documents.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said the court heard that Nyabuti presented a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate showing a mean grade of C- when seeking employment at KenGen.
His actual KCSE results from 1994 showed that he had obtained a mean grade of D- after sitting eight subjects at St Paul’s Igonga Secondary School.
The fake certificate enabled Nyabuti to secure employment and receive salaries and other benefits totalling Sh14,946,118.82 during his time at KenGen.
Senior Principal Magistrate C. Okore ordered him to compensate the company by paying Sh14,946,118 for the public property he had fraudulently acquired. He will serve five years in prison if he fails to pay the compensation.
Nyabuti was also fined Sh900,000 for the same offence, with a further two-year jail term in default.
He was convicted on two additional counts of uttering false documents contrary to Section 353 of the Penal Code. The court imposed a Sh200,000 fine on each count, with a two-year prison sentence in default of each fine.
The sentences will run concurrently.
The prosecution, led by Naomi Isoe, also presented evidence showing that Nyabuti obtained a disability certificate from the National Council for Persons with Disabilities through fraudulent means.
The certificate allowed him to benefit from tax exemptions between July 2014 and September 2018.
His use of the forged academic certificate eventually came under scrutiny when KenGen required him to produce his original academic documents. Nyabuti subsequently resigned from the company.
The case therefore brought to an end a period in which he had remained in employment using academic credentials that did not match his actual examination results, while also benefiting from tax exemptions through a disability certificate the prosecution said had been fraudulently obtained.