A former human resource officer at the County Assembly of Kiambu has been fined Ksh1.06 million after she was convicted of using a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate to secure employment.
In a judgment delivered on Thursday, October 22, 2026, Milimani Anti-Corruption Court Magistrate Isabellah Barasa convicted Margaret Mbugua on three counts after she pleaded guilty under a plea agreement with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The court fined Mbugua Ksh20,000 on each of the three counts, amounting to Ksh60,000, and ordered her to pay an additional Ksh1 million in compensation to the government for fraudulently acquiring public property.
According to investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Mbugua presented a forged KCSE certificate purportedly showing that she sat her examinations at Gachoire Secondary School in 1996.
An image of a court gravel
Photo
CapitalFM
The commission established that she used the document to secure employment at the County Assembly of Kiambu, where she served as a principal human resource officer and received Ksh4,921,953.80 in salary between November 2020 and August 2025.
Court documents seen by Kenyans.co.ke indicated that the forged certificate was presented on December 16, 2011, at St Paul's University in Kiambu County, with the intention of securing employment. The prosecution had lined up seven witnesses, including experts, and had documentary evidence to support the charges.
Mbugua pleaded guilty to fraudulent acquisition of public property, uttering a false document and presenting a forged certificate, offences linked to the use of the academic document.
The charge of forgery was listed separately, but she did not plead guilty to that count under the agreement.
On the fraudulent acquisition of public property charge, the court ordered her to pay Ksh1 million to the government, in addition to the fine imposed on each of the three counts. She faces a default sentence of six months' imprisonment for each count if she fails to pay the respective fines.
The EACC welcomed the conviction, saying the outcome should serve as a warning to individuals who use forged academic documents to obtain public employment and access public funds.
The case adds to the government's efforts to address suspected fraud in public institutions, including the verification of academic qualifications and the scrutiny of salaries paid to employees whose recruitment records may contain irregularities.
The government has also been investigating suspected payroll fraud across ministries, departments, agencies and state corporations. A forensic audit presented to the government identified suspected irregularities amounting to Ksh6.2 billion in 12 of 53 state departments examined.
A view of the EACC headquarters at Integrity Centre, located at the Jakaya Kikwete and Valley Road junction in Nairobi.
Photo
EACC