The Nairobi City County Government has begun a sweeping audit of academic and professional qualifications for its more than 17,000 employees, in what is being billed as the most aggressive move yet against fake credentials in the public service.
The exercise, which started last Friday and will run until December 19, 2025, follows a directive from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Public Service Commission (PSC). All county employees have been instructed to submit their certificates through their respective departments for verification.
A circular from the County Public Service Board (CPSB), signed by chairman Thomas Kasoa, confirmed the move, saying the audit is aimed at cleaning up the county payroll. “Forward us the personal files for all officers in the respective sector as per the schedule. Also forward any other verification report that has been conducted by the Public Service Sector for our further action,” the memo reads.
The memo was copied to Governor Johnson Sakaja, his deputy Njoroge Muchiri, the county secretary, and all chief officers — underlining the seriousness of the exercise.
This comes against the backdrop of a national crackdown on forged documents. Last year, the PSC and EACC revealed that taxpayers had lost close to Sh460 million in salaries and allowances paid to individuals who secured jobs using fake papers.
EACC chief executive Abdi Mohamud said the commission had already received 549 reports of forged academic and professional certificates. “The amount of money we are looking to recover in this exercise is in the region of Sh460 million,” he said.
The Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) has also been raising alarm. In April, the agency disclosed that it had flagged over 10,000 fake certificates across government departments after reviewing 47,000 files submitted by nearly 400 institutions.
Head of Public Service Felix Koskei has warned that the trend is not just a payroll fraud, but a direct assault on Kenya’s institutional integrity. Speaking at the 2025 Ethics and Integrity Conference in Nairobi three months ago, he called the fake papers syndicate “a serious threat to national development.”
The Nairobi exercise now signals a fresh wave of accountability, with county officials under pressure to prove that the qualifications on their CVs actually match the work they are paid to do.
