Detectives have smoked out a Ugandan Form One dropout who used forged academic certificates to get top jobs in government and reputable private companies in Kenya.

Until he was arrested last week, he was the deputy director of information and communications technology at the Public Service Commission.

The 50-year-old man, who goes by the names Moses Otieno Obiero, Nobert Muhoro Ikundo, Hope Lubega and Robert Mwanyalo, was arrested by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Nairobi last week and is scheduled to be charged at Milimani Law Courts on Friday.

For 26 years, investigations reveal, the man used a forged degree and postgraduate certificates to secure employment in 10 organisations.

ICT Assistant

Between 1991 and 1992, he worked as an ICT assistant at the UN office in Nairobi and, for the next two years, was the IT section head at the Standard Chartered Bank.

In 1995, he was the technical service manager at Siemens Telcom and joined Interactive Business Technology the following year where he remained until 2000.

He then joined the technical support department at the United Federation of The Red Crescent in 2001 and left the same year to work for Deloitte as the systems administrator until 2006.

Between 2008 and 2010, he was the Standard Media Group’s head of ICT before he resigned to work for Kenya Seed as the chief information officer until 2012.

Between 2012 and 2014, he was head of ICT at Nzoia Sugar Company.

PSC Headquarters

Until his arrest, he was at the PSC headquarters where he was the second in command at the ICT department since 2015.

Police have since established that the man was born in Uganda and attended Magwa Primary School in Jinja. But he completed primary education at Army Primary School, also in Jinja.

He left his home country for Kenya, where he was enrolled in Standard Eight at Apuoyo primary school in Uchiwe Village in Gem, Siaya.

Investigations reveal that he was admitted to Form One in Yala in 1986 but dropped out the same year. Detectives who dug into his past also revealed, in a report seen by the Nation, that he moved to Nairobi in 1989 and lived with a relative.

At the time of his arrest, he was found with three birth certificates bearing serial numbers D694926, B644745 and B227280.

National IDs

Police also confiscated two national identity cards bearing numbers 11085401 and 9287561. Also found with him are two master’s certificates, two KCSE certificates and a bachelor of science degree.

Police also seized from him three Kenyan passports – A751118, A016879 and A1749511. Document examination experts at the DCI established that all papers in his possession were forgeries.

Police also established that the man has a criminal record, raising questions about how he secured plum jobs after 2010, when he was convicted for forgery.

Established gaps

He was smoked out only because the PSC vetting programme established gaps in his history and security experts have recommended it should be intensified and extended to other government agencies, to reduce the probability that unqualified people are holding key dockets.

In 2010, he was charged with forging a degree certificate in court, where he pleaded guilty and was fined Sh50,000 ( $483 ).

In the criminal case, the court directed he should swear an affidavit, saying he would stop using the name Nobert Muhoro Ikundo, whose degree certificate he had stolen.