16 police recruits charged with forging certificates

Barely a month before their passing out parade, 16 police recruits from the Kenya Police Training College were yesterday arraigned before a Nyeri court charged with forging academic documents.

Some of the nine female and seven male trainees were further charged with presenting false Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificates.

All the 16 recruits, majority of them in tears and shielding their faces from the hawk-eyed journalists, were on Tuesday evening brought to court in two police land lovers.

Fourteen of them were charged with one count stating that on diverse dates before April 2015, they forged KCSE certificates, purporting to have been issued by the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec).

Four others; Mayoni Misiani, Evelyn Kwamboka, Rose Chemunto and Edna Kwamboka, faced another count of presenting false documents, specifically KCSE certificates, to Sergeant Martin Fabwa.

Appearing before Nyeri Chief Magistrate John Oyiego, and represented by lawyer Douglas Obwongi, they denied all the charges.

Mr Obwongi applied to have his clients released on reasonable bond terms, pending the hearing of their case.

He further asked to be supplied with witness statements and any other documentary evidence the prosecution wished to rely on.

The magistrate granted them a bond of Sh250,000 for those facing two counts and a similar surety or a cash bail of Sh150,000.

Those facing one count were released on a cash bail of Sh100,000 or a bond of Sh200,000 with a similar surety.

The mention and hearing dates for the accused were set for January and February 2016.

Three weeks ago, three other recruits were arraigned in the same court for being in possession of eight rolls of bhang.

Two of them were acquitted of the charges. Sources within the college said more than 2,800 recruits are expected to pass out between January 26 and February 4 next year.

The recruitment exercise had been marred by corruption allegations.