A Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company employee has been ordered to pay Sh7.5 million after being convicted of using a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate to secure employment at the utility.

In a statement, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) said Milimani Anti-Corruption Court Magistrate Celesa Okore convicted the employee on four counts in a judgment delivered on October 29, 2026.

According to the EACC, the court found that the employee presented a KCSE certificate indicating that he had attained a mean grade of C plain in the 2002 examination, while his actual grade was D plain.

"He was convicted of fraudulent acquisition of public property, uttering a false document, deceiving a principal and presenting a forged certificate," the statement said.

"However, he was acquitted of the separate charge of forgery."

The court ordered the employee to pay Sh6,742,673 in compensation for salaries he received from Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company between November 2016 and December 2023.

He will serve a four-year prison sentence if he fails to pay the compensation.

The magistrate also imposed fines totalling Sh800,000 across the four counts. The employee was fined Sh300,000 for fraudulent acquisition of public property, with 12 months' imprisonment in default.

He was further fined Sh200,000 for uttering a false document, another Sh200,000 for deceiving a principal and Sh100,000 for presenting a forged certificate. Each of the three fines carries an eight-month prison term in default.

The court directed that the default prison terms attached to the four fines run consecutively.

The total amount the employee is required to pay is Sh7,542,673, comprising the compensation and fines.

According to the EACC, the case arose from investigations conducted after the commission received a report that the employee had used a forged academic certificate to obtain employment at the water company.

After completing its investigations, the commission forwarded the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions with recommendations for prosecution.

The commission said the conviction underscored the importance of verifying academic and professional qualifications during recruitment.