A former ward administrator in Kisii County is being pursued to return more than Sh3 million he was paid in salary and allowances, with investigators saying he had no valid academic qualifications for the job.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) wants the High Court to compel Evans Nyaoka Rambeka to return the money he earned for three years on the strength of forged academic certificates.
The details emerged during the hearing of a case lodged by EACC against Mr Rambeka before Justice Esther Maina.
The EACC is seeking to recover Sh3,162,452 irregularly paid to Mr Rambeka.
Mr Rambeka, who is serving a one-year jail term for forging academic papers, told Justice Maina that he had carried out his duties competently.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, Mr Rambeka urged the court not to allow the EACC’s application to recover the money, saying he did not forge any of the two certificates, including a diploma in human resource management from the Kenya Institute of Management.
Mr Omari told the judge that Mr Rambeka did not have the required academic papers when he sought the job but he was considered for the job anyway.
"If the employer (Kisii County government) decided to employ me without academic qualifications, I am not to blame," Mr Rambeka stated.
Mr Rambeka also distanced himself from two certificates in question, saying someone else in the county government must have forged the documents using his name and placed them in his file at the Kisii County Assembly.
"I totally deny the averments by EACC as I am not aware how the said documents got into my employment file and that is a clear indication of malicious political acts emanating from the county government of Kisii to implicate me for wrongs I never did," Mr Rambeka said.
Urging the court to order the recovery of the money, the EACC, through Linet Onyambu, a deputy director human resources in Kisii County government, said Mr Rambeka received the money for 38 months on account of the education testimonials presented to the county.
"(Mr Rambeka) received salaries and allowances amounting to Sh3,162,452, which were deposited to his Family Bank and Chase Bank accounts (in) different periods of his employment," Ms Onyambu said.
The court heard that Mr Rambeka, who was also fined Sh450,000 for the offence of using forged academic certificates to secure the job, worked for the county from February 2014 to March 2017 when the anti-graft agency raised the red flag.
Maureen Busolo, a witness from the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM), told the judge that Mr Rambeka was not enrolled there as a student and that the admission numbers on the certificates belong to two different people.
"The two forged certificates in issue, certificate No. 47204 and diploma certificate No. 8854, actually belonged to Fransisca Kerubo Ochwangi, who graduated in the year 2010, and Lois Moringo Kaburi in the year 2006 respectively," Ms Busolo, the head of education at KIM, told the court.
The EACC also wants the court to declare that Mr Rambeka’s employment as ward administrator was fraudulent, illegal and void.
The agency wants the court to rule "that (Mr Rambeka) ought not have been paid salaries and allowances amounting to Sh3,162,452 by the county government of Kisii".
The EACC brought five counts against Mr Rambeka. Kisii Chief Magistrate Nathan Lutta sentenced him to one year in prison in 2019 for forging academic papers.
