Former Finance and ICT Manager at the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) Noah Oluoch Oketch, has been arrested by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
EACC noted that Oketch was arrested on grounds of utilizing fake academic credentials to obtain employment within the agency.
The former manager is currently in custody at the EACC police station for administrative procedures awaiting arraignment at the Milimani court.
Further, the anti-graft commission disclosed that REREC is among several agencies with employees who submitted forged academic and professional credentials.
This development comes after EACC cautioned the Head of Public Service and all civil service accounting officers against disbursing benefits to employees departing amidst allegations of falsified academic and professional qualifications.
Also Read: EACC Arrests Nine Govt Officials
EACC Issue Directive Over Payment of Benefits
In a communiqué dated March 11, 2024, the commission reiterated its warning against facilitating payments to civil servants opting for early retirement or resignation in light of pending investigations into purportedly falsified academic and professional records.
EACC Chairperson Dr. David Oginde had announced earlier that the commission would collaborate closely with the Public Service Commission (PSC) to scrutinize the authenticity of academic and professional certificates held by public officials.
Dr. Oginde said the commission had received from the PSC a report on the authentication of academic and Professional Certificates.
“The law allows EACC to recover all salaries and benefits earned based on fake academic qualifications. In addition, the offenders are liable to criminal prosecution,” Oginde said.
He added that the authentication exercise, undertaken by PSC, revealed numerous cases of public officials who forged academic documents to secure jobs and promotions.
More Graft Arrests by EACC
Meanwhile, EACC’s enforcement efforts ensnared another individual, Dennis Thuo Kimani, a Supply Chain Management Officer at REREC.
Kimani faced charges at the Milimani Law Court in Nairobi after being apprehended by EACC officers.
Similarly, allegations against Kimani center on the forgery of academic certificates to secure employment at REREC.
Also Read: EACC Arrests Govt Official Over Fake Degree
Facing a litany of charges, Kimani stands accused of perpetrating eleven instances of forgery related to his academic credentials.
“Between 1st April 2022 and 31st July 2022 within Nairobi County in the Republic of Kenya, being employed at the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation to wit as a Supply Chain Management Assistant (Procurement and Disposal), you fraudulently acquired Kshs 311,974.5 being salary from the Rural Electrification and Renewable,” read count one.
In October 2023, EACC was investigating up to 172 cases of alleged forgery of academic certificates.
The commission said it had identified six categories of academic fraud as the most prevalent in Kenya.
They include altering high school grades on KCSE certificates to gain entry into the University and impersonating people named on certificates, including the dead.
