By Michelle Ndaga
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has charged a Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Limited employee with forgery and fraudulent acquisition of public funds amounting to millions of shillings.
Teresia Chepkemoi Chepkwony, who served as a revenue collection assistant, technician, and marketing assistant at the utility firm, was arraigned on Wednesday before the Milimani Anti-Corruption Court.
The court heard that on an unknown date and place within Kenya, with the intent to deceive, Chepkemoi forged a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in the name of Chepkemoi Teresia, indicating she had attained a mean grade of C+ from Boron Secondary School. She allegedly presented the document as genuine, purporting it to have been issued by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), despite knowing it was false.
Prosecutors further accused Chepkemoi of fraudulently obtaining salaries totaling Ksh. 7,590,872 between March 1, 2013, and December 31, 2023. The salaries, they argued, were irregularly earned after she secured employment using the forged academic certificate.
She was also charged with uttering a false document and deceiving a principal, contrary to the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act. The prosecution stated that on September 18, 2017, while employed at Nairobi Water, the accused knowingly submitted the forged KCSE certificate to the company’s Human Resource Manager, Titus Tuitoek, while filling out a personnel record form. In the form, she declared she was a KCSE holder with a mean grade of C+, information the court was told she knew to be false.
Chepkemoi denied all the charges before Principal Magistrate C.N. Ondieki.
The court ordered that she be released on a bond of Ksh. 500,000 with one surety of a similar amount, or alternatively, on a cash bail of Ksh. 100,000. The magistrate further directed that she provide two suitable contact persons whose details, including copies of their national identification cards and phone numbers, would be recorded and retained in the court file.
The case is scheduled for mention on September 3, 2025, for further directions.
