A former Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen) employee has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after using a forged KCSE certificate to secure employment and a fraudulent disability certificate to enjoy tax exemptions.
David Mogire Nyabuti was convicted by the Anti-Corruption Court after the prosecution established that he presented false documents that enabled him to obtain employment and financial benefits from the State.
Nyabuti joined KenGen in August 2003 as a Craft Grade III employee and worked for the company until September 2018, when he resigned after being asked to produce his original academic certificates. The court heard that Nyabuti had sat for his KCSE examinations in 1994 at St Paul’s Igonga Secondary School and obtained a mean grade of D- from eight subjects.
However, the certificate he presented to KenGen showed a mean grade of C-, a qualification he had not actually attained. He used the forged certificate to secure the job and went on to receive salaries and employment benefits amounting to KSh14,946,118.82. But the court also found that Nyabuti had used another false document to obtain a financial advantage while working at KenGen.
He fraudulently obtained a disability certificate from the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, which he used to qualify for tax exemptions between July 2014 and September 2018. This meant that, in addition to the employment and benefits he obtained after presenting the forged academic certificate, Nyabuti also benefited from the tax privileges attached to disability status.
Senior Principal Magistrate C. Okore ordered Nyabuti to pay KSh14,946,118 in compensation for the public property he had fraudulently acquired. Failure to pay will attract five years in prison.
He was further fined KSh900,000 for the same offence, with a two-year jail term in default.
Nyabuti was also 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 prison term in default of each fine. The sentences will run concurrently.
His case came to light after KenGen required him to provide his original academic certificates, prompting him to resign from the company in September 2018.
The court’s findings established that Nyabuti had used false documentation at different stages of his employment, first to meet the academic requirements for a KenGen job and later to access tax exemptions available to persons with disabilities.
