City Hall in fresh bid to weed out employees with fake academic papers

Nairobi County Public Service Board intends to commence comprehensive verification for all academic and professional certificates for staff. [File, Standard]

The Nairobi County employees have been asked to submit their academic documents for fresh verification in a bid to push out staff with fake papers.

The County Public Service Board said this was triggered by communication fromthe Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

In a letter signed by County Public Service acting Chief Violet Oyangi, the staff were directed to submit academic and professional certificates by January 15, 2026, in an exercise expected to run for more than a month.

“This is in line with the directive issued by the Public Service Commission (PSC), and reference by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission,” the notice reads in part

“Nairobi County Public Service Board, intends to commence comprehensive verification exercise for all academic and professional certificates for staff of Nairobi City County Government,” read the letter in part.

In an exercise that targets about 17,000 employees, the staff will also be required to submit the current appointment letter and a duly signed disclaimer form provided by County Public Service Board.

At the same time, the staff were cautioned not to give money, facilitation fees or payment to any individual claiming to fast-track, influence or assist with verification of academic papers.

"The exercise is not necessarily targeting ghost workers but those who got employed using fake papers," County Public Service Board acting Chief, Violet Oyangi told The Standard

"Stern action will be taken on those who will not submit the papers. If their documents will be found in our records and they don't submit for verification, then it means they used fake papers," Oyangi added.

Nairobi County Assembly Chairperson for Labour Allan Gathuku said City Hall is losing millions of taxpayers money, through the ghost workers in payroll.

“I hope that the exercise will be transparent because the number of employees that we get from the HR differs from those who are insured by the county,” Gathuku said

At the same time, he said in some areas the county employs overqualified individuals for manual jobs only for them to leave when they get green pastures.

For this reason, he observed that the best way to handle the matter is for the county to do away with academic papers when employing people like those tasked with cleaning the city.

Kenya County Government Workers Union Nairobi Branch Secretary General Festus Ngare said while the employer has a right to conduct verification it has both positive and negative outcomes.

“It could be one way of allowing employees to update their papers and show other skills that they possess, it could also be another way of probing those who landed the wrong jobs and the only way is to verify their papers before being axed,” he said

Last year, the government said it was losing about half a billion in salaries and allowances drawn by individuals who landed jobs using fake papers.

In 2024, the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) flagged over 10,000 fake certificates from various government departments and agencies in a qualifications verification.

''The commission received and has taken up for investigation a total of 549 reports of forgery of academic and professional certificates. The amount of money we are looking to recover in this exercise is in the region of Sh460 million," EACC stated.

Recently, Head of Public Service Felix Koskei said people using fake academic papers are a serious threat to institutional integrity and national development.