Garissa Water MD fails to take plea in a corruption case

Garissa,

Friday, January 26, 2024

KNA by Jacob Songok

The Garissa Water and Sewerage Company (GAWASCO) Managing Director, Dolal Mohamed Mohamud on Friday failed to take a plea at a Garissa anti-corruption court due to the absence of a presiding magistrate.

Dolal who appeared before Garissa Resident Magistrate Jackson Omwange could not plead to corruption charges and the matter was deferred to February 5th.

 The MD arrested by the anti-corruption sleuths yesterday was released on a cash bail of Sh200,000.

 The suspect faces five counts including fraudulent acquisition of public property and uttering a false document.

According to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the suspect fraudulently acquired public property with salaries and benefits amounting to Sh12,987,290.

He is being accused of forging a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate to gain entry to university for a degree course.

 According to EACC, the suspect scored a grade D (Plain) in his KCSE exams but forged a new KCSE Certificate awarding himself a grade C+ (Plus) in order to meet the requirements for further studies.

Using the forged Certificate, the suspect successfully studied for a Diploma in Public Relations and a Certificate in Purchasing and Supplies at the University of Nairobi, and subsequently a Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies at Mt. Kenya University.

 Investigations further revealed that the suspect enrolled at Garissa High School as a student of Index No. 801101151 and sat for KCSE in 1998 obtaining a mean of D Plain.

 However, his personal file at GAWASCO had a certificate of KCSE of 1998 Index No. 801101151 with a mean grade of C+ (Plus).

In the fake KCSE Certificate, all subject grades in the KCSE certificate had been altered except for Islamic Religious Education (code 314).

Dolal joined the GAWASCO in February 2007 as a billing clerk and rose to become the agency’s Managing Director in 2023.

EACC has identified at least six categories of academic fraud as the most prevalent across the country including persons altering their High School grades on their KCSE certificates to gain entry into the University.

The anti-corruption agency is also investigating persons who get admission to university programs but for some reason fail to complete their studies but forge degree/diploma certificates which they use to secure employment.

There are also Kenyans who enroll in university programs, complete their studies, and graduate but alter their degree/diploma classification from “second-class honors lower division” to “first-class honours.”

Others have never set foot in any classroom but are fraudulently issued academic certificates by the Universities. They get all certificates and transcripts but only lack their former classmates.

Also, on the EACC radar is a group of persons who enroll for higher courses such as Masters or Doctorate programs using forged Diplomas and Degree certificates. This group has genuine higher qualifications but fake lower ones. 

Courtesy; KNA