MAN SENTENCED FOR FORGING UNIVERSITY DEGREE CERTIFICATE

Vihiga Principal Magistrate Grace Mmasi
on Friday sentenced a man to three years
in jail for forging university certificates to
secure an appointment as a board-
employed secondary school teacher.
Joseph Karanja, who is in his twenties,
forged the academic documents between
September 23, 2013 and February 2, 2014
in the name of Mr Tirop Elphas
Kipchirchir.
He also lied that he was an alumnus of
Maseno University and that he graduated
on November 23, 2012 with a second class
honours Education degree.
Mrs Mmasi said the university denied that
the accused was their student.
“The university further testified that the
institution held its graduation on
November 16, 2012 and not on Friday
November 23, 2012 as indicated on the
forged documents,” said the magistrate.
She added that the vice chancellor who
purportedly signed Karanja’s certificates
had left the institution long before the
dates appearing on the said certificates.
At the time of prosecution, the accused
was teaching at Friends School,
Shamakhokho in Hamisi sub-county
where he taught from January 22, 2014 as
a school board-employed teacher.
He has another pending case at the
Hamisi Law Courts where he faces
charges of defiling a student at the school.
He also taught at Senende Secondary and
St Ursula Chamakanga Secondary before
joining Shamakhokho.
It is at Senende where he taught with Mr
Kipchirchir and where he is believed to
have taken Mr Kipchirchir’s certificates to
copy the particulars from his academic
documents.
The magistrate said that Mr Kipchirchir,
who testified in court during the hearing,
was surprised to learn that Karanja was
using certificates in his name but Karanja
insisted that he was Kipchirchir and not
Karanja as stated in court.
However, his fingerprints proved that he
was Karanja and not Mr Kipchirchir as he
had alleged.
Efforts by the accused, who did not have a
lawyer, to ask for leniency from the court
were futile as the magistrate said his was
a serious case of forgery.
“I request that I be forgiven because I am
a family man and the only breadwinner,”
Karanja said.
But the magistrate disagreed
“Karanja had no lawful authority to make
a certificate but he did so with intent to
deceive. The case of forgery is serious. I
have no option but to sentence you to
three years imprisonment, the accused
being a first offender,” she said, and gave
him 14 days to appeal against the
judgement.