The days are numbered for fake certificates

Many people in Kenya, and even across the African continent, have acquired and are using fake academic certificates to gain access to certain coveted privileges or postings. The tragedy is that most of these fraudsters have failed to discharge the mandates of those positions.

Many Kenyans have gone back to school. The number of students in both primary and secondary is rising every year, as is the number of those seeking higher education. Evening and weekend programmes in universities and colleges are filled with education-hungry Kenyans. Unfortunately, the number of those bearing or seeking fake certificates is equally high.

Besides making a mockery of our instruction and examination processes, fake certificates also give undue advantage to undeserving people. To grow, the nation needs well-qualified human resource.

Fake certificates are the reason some employees do not meet the expectations of employers, why Kenyans are often disappointed by the services they get in various offices, why employers complain about “half-baked graduates”.

It is demoralising that highly and genuinely qualified people remain jobless as those with fake certificates craftily find their way into big offices, where they proceed to run down the economy.

The prevalence of fake documentation in Kenya is enabled by loopholes in our systems that make it difficult to immediately verify certificates. Several employers insist that one get a certified copy of the certificate besides producing the original one. However, this is no cure because, due to endemic corruption, people in the issuing institutions connive to aid the fraudsters. Technological advancements have also made it easy to replicate original certificates.

The recently constituted Kenya National Qualifications Authority has been mandated to crack down on fake documents, among them academic certificates. The authority was established under Kenya National Qualifications Framework, 2014, and has a wide representation from the education and training sectors, employers, employees, and professional associations.

The authority is working on establishing a national database where all people who hold genuine certificates will be enlisted. The database will include information on where one went to school and/or college, the year they sat for exams, and the grades obtained.

It is working with the stakeholders, mainly learning institutions and examining bodies, to gather the information on everyone who has gone through Kenya’s learning institutions.

Eventually, this information will be shared with employers and other relevant institutions with the aim of eradicating cheating through fake certificates. The authority plans to set up a digital system that will enable employers to determine a person’s academic qualifications by inputting their details.

Even organisations such as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission will be able to use the authority’s services to ascertain the qualifications of political aspirants.

The authority envisions a situation where one does not need to carry a physical certificate to a job or other interview; one will only need to present one’s name and ID number.

The Kenya National Qualifications Authority will also set standards and benchmarks for qualifications and competencies including skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values.

With the authority in place and fully operational, the prevalence of forged certificates will be a thing of the past.

Prof Kerre is the chairman of the Kenya National Qualifications Authority.