Former KEPHIS employee to refund Kes4.7 million salary for fake academic papers

20:08:2024: Anti-Corruption Court sitting at Milimani Law Courts has sentenced former Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) Assistant Plant Inspector to a mandatory fine of Kes4,746,834 or five years imprisonment in default for fraudulent acquisition of public property.

The fine is the equivalent of the salary that Mr Zinje Juma Mwadama, the former employee of KEPHIS, received after using fake academic papers to secure employment at the institution.

He was also sentenced to a fine of Kes100,000 or 12 months imprisonment in default for providing false information to a public entity and a fine of kes100,000 or 12 months imprisonment in default for another count of giving false information to a public entity.

In determining the sentence, the Court indicated that it had considered the sentencing guidelines and the convict’s social inquiry report. Section 48 1(a) of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act (ACECA), 2003, requires that such a convict be sentenced to a fine not exceeding Kes1 million, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or both.

Sec. 48 2(a) states that the mandatory fine shall equal two times the benefit or loss amount. In fining the convict the equivalent of the benefit, the Court observed that the convict had applied the money primarily to meet day-to-day expenses.

The Court convicted Zinje on July 30, 2024, for acquiring Kes4,746,834.38, a salary earned from KEPHIS. He was also convicted on two other counts of providing false information to a public entity, being information filled in the KEPHIS employment form where he falsely stated that he possessed a Diploma in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development from Baraka Agricultural College and a Certificate in Agriculture from Kilifi Institute of Agriculture respectively.