- Margaret Njeri Mbugua was convicted by the Milimani Anti-Corruption Court on three counts after pleading guilty under a plea agreement with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
A former Principal Human Resource Officer at the County Assembly of Kiambu has been fined Ksh.1.06 million after admitting to fraudulently securing public funds using a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate.
Margaret Njeri Mbugua was convicted by the Milimani
Anti-Corruption Court on three counts after pleading guilty under a plea
agreement with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
In a judgment delivered on October 22, 2026, Magistrate
Isabellah Barasa ordered Mbugua to pay Ksh.1 million in compensation to the
government for fraudulently acquiring public property. She was also fined
Ksh.20,000 on each of the three counts, bringing the total penalty to Ksh.1.06
million.
The court further ordered that she would serve six months in
prison for each count in default of paying the fines.
Investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission
(EACC) established that Mbugua used a forged KCSE certificate, purportedly
issued for examinations undertaken in November and December 1996 at Gachoire
Secondary School, to secure employment at the County Assembly of Kiambu.
According to the court documents, she received
Ksh.4,921,953.80 in salaries between November 9, 2020, and August 26, 2025,
after securing employment using the falsified academic document.
The charge sheet states that Mbugua presented the
certificate, bearing serial number 1018572, on December 16, 2011, at St. Paul's
University in Kiambu County, claiming it was a genuine document issued by the
Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC).
She was initially charged with four offences: fraudulent
acquisition of public property, forgery, uttering a false document and
presenting a forged certificate.
However, under the plea agreement, she admitted to
fraudulent acquisition of public property, uttering a false document and
presenting a forged certificate. The forgery count was to be withdrawn under
the agreement.
The prosecution had lined up seven witnesses, including
experts, to testify in the case had it proceeded to trial.
Under the plea agreement, Mbugua also committed to
compensate the government Ksh.1 million in quarterly instalments of Ksh.83,500,
beginning in October 2026 and running through July 2029, with the final
instalment subject to the agreed payment schedule.
EACC welcomed the conviction, saying the outcome serves
as a deterrent to individuals who engage in similar criminal conduct.