Jepkoech Kiptoo, a staffer at Auditor General’s office released on bail in academic certificates forgery case
An employee attached to the Office of the Auditor General was yesterday freed on a Sh100,000 cash bail with an alternative of Sh500,000 after she was charged with fraudulently securing public employment using fake academic certificates.
The accused, identified as Jepkoech Kiptoo, was presented at the Milimani anti-corruption Law courts after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) approved charges against her as recommended by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
The anti-corruption commission forwarded a file to the ODPP after its investigations revealed that Kiptoo fraudulently acquired public property amounting to SH8,698,662.91, unlawfully paid to her by the Office of the Auditor General; forgery; and uttering a false document.
Before being presented in court, she had been booked at the Integrity Centre Police Station.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges before being released on Cash bail.
The arraignment of Kiptoo came a day after a revenue collection assistant, technician, and marketing assistant at Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company was freed on a half a million bond and Sh100,000 cash bail after she was charged with forgery of an academic certificate.
The court heard that on an unknown date and place within the Republic of Kenya Teresia Chepkemoi Chepkwony with the intent to deceive, forged a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in the name of Chepkemoi Teresia bearing a mean grade of C plus from Boron Secondary School, purporting it to be a genuine document issued to her by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), a fact she knew to be false.
Additionally, she was charged with an offense of fraudulent acquisition of public property.
It is alleged that between March 2013 and December 2023, within Nairobi County, being a public officer employed as a revenue collection assistant, technician, and marketer at Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Limited, she fraudulently acquired public property amounting to Kenya shillings Seven million, eight hundred and ninety thousand, eight hundred and seventy-two shillings (Sh7,590,872.00) being salaries earned from Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company on account of securing employment using a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
She was also charged with uttering a false document and deceiving the principal, contrary to section 41(2) as read with section 48 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.
”On or about September 18, 2017, at Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Limited within Nairobi, the accused person knowingly and fraudulently uttered a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, purporting it to be a genuine certificate issued by KNEC,” the ODPP explained to the court.
”She deceived Titus Tuitoek, the human resource manager, by filling out a personnel record form stating that she is a holder of a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education with a mean grade of C plus, which information she knew to be false,” the ODPPO added.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges before Principal Magistrate Charles Ondieki.
The case will be mentioned early next month for further directions.
