Search Page

Kenya has a global online industry on ghostwriters helping foreigners to cheat. Many of the essay mills websites are based in the US and Eastern Europe, and the profile pictures of the writers to be hired are fake. They give the impression that the essay will be written by an academic in the West when in fact it is written by someone in Kenya, often a student or graduate there. While some countries are taking action to ban essay selling services, it is not yet clear how effective this will be in stopping a trade that crosses international borders so easily.

The Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) protested the dismissal of Maasai Mara University chief finance officer, who was among the staff who blew the whistle on the misappropriation of KES190 million (US$1.8 million). KUSU also called for the dissolution of the entire Maasai Mara University Council by the Ministry of Education and the removal of the acting vice-chancellor for covering up the case.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has launched a new biometric enrolment and validation of teachers system intended to address staff shortages and prevent the use of fake degrees. Pre-loaded data from the TSC payroll system will be validated when the teachers provide physical documents such as an enrolment certificate, national identity card, letter of first and last appointment together with their academic and professional certificates. This pilot registration took off in 143 schools in seven counties.

A recent report from Public Accounts Committee reveals the theft of billions of taxpayers' money pocketed by corrupt officials and school heads. The Mundeku Secondary School is one of the 4 ghost schools in the Ministry records with 1,188 students used by an official to steal Sh27,329,598.95 from public funds. The report found another officer inflating enrolment data for 185 schools, resulting in the overpayment of Sh269, 254,288. The cases have been submitted to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation.

Two former accountants at the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology received 7.5 years in prison after they were found guilty of embezzling Ksh2.5 million. They faced ten counts for fraudulent acquisition of public property, abuse of office, conspiracy to defraud and stealing by a person employed by the public service. Another Education official was sentenced to 2.5 years after stealing Ksh1.5 million of public funds.

In order to ensure that only genuine qualifications cross borders, The Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) joined the African Qualifications Verification Network, an initiative of the African Union to support the mobility of students and workers on the continent. Under the regulation developed in 2018, anyone seeking employment in Kenya with foreign qualifications must be assessed by the KNQA and granted a certificate of recognition or verification.

A number of school heads planned to defraud the government by providing lists of non-existing teachers, which delayed the release of the funds to pay teachers and other staff employed by the Boards of Management (BoM). The Minister of Education asked principals to collect and submit the right data of BoM teachers employed including names, the Teachers Service Commission number, and the country they belong to.

According to a computer scientist and expert in contract cheating, Kenya has established itself as the centre of the academic cheating universe. The vast majority of university students’ work for essay factories which are delivered to British students with a guarantee they contain no plagiarism and all anonymous. In an effort to clamp down on the cheats and after pressure from the British Government, PayPal announced it would block payments to essay factories.