A former Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) employee has been sentenced to 11 years in prison or ordered to pay more than KSh16 million after being convicted of using forged academic and disability certificates to secure employment and benefits.
David Mogire Nyabuti was convicted by the Anti-Corruption Court after the prosecution, led by Naomi Isoe, proved that he fraudulently acquired public property and presented false documents.
Senior Principal Magistrate C. Okore ordered Nyabuti to pay KSh14,946,118 in compensation for public property obtained through fraud. He was also fined KSh900,000 for the same offence, with default prison terms applicable.
Nyabuti was further convicted on two counts of uttering false documents contrary to Section 353 of the Penal Code. He was fined KSh200,000 on each count, with a two-year imprisonment term for each count in default of payment.
The court directed that the sentences run concurrently.
According to evidence presented during the case, Nyabuti worked at KenGen as a Craft Grade III employee from August 2003 until September 2018, when he resigned.
The prosecution established that Nyabuti used a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate to secure employment at the power generation company.
He had sat for his KCSE examinations in 1994 at St Paul’s Igonga Secondary School, obtaining a mean grade of D- from eight subjects. However, the certificate he presented to KenGen indicated that he had obtained a mean grade of C-.
The forged certificate enabled him to secure employment and subsequently receive salaries and benefits amounting to KSh14,946,118.82, according to the court’s findings.
The court also heard that Nyabuti fraudulently obtained a disability certificate from the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, which he used to benefit from tax exemptions between July 2014 and September 2018.
Nyabuti eventually resigned after KenGen required him to produce his original academic certificates, leading to scrutiny of the documents he had presented.
