The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has arrested four individuals, including two foreign nationals, for issuing fraudulent PhD and Master’s degrees after three days of training.
In a statement posted on their X account on February 13, 2025, DCI revealed that the individuals were operating from a makeshift university temporarily set up in Mombasa County.
Officers from Bamburi Police Station apprehended the two foreigners—American citizen Dayis Lawrence Bennett and Pakistani national Farah Akab—along with Kenyan nationals Ekra Ndung’u and Josephine Ndune as they conferred degrees to participants.
“Two foreign nationals are among four individuals who have been arrested in a sting operation targeting a phoney university that had been temporarily accommodated in Mombasa County. The four were found issuing Masters and PhD degrees to excited participants who had received training for only three days,” DCI said.
According to the DCI, some of the degrees issued included three Master of Business Administration (Leadership and Management) certificates and two PhDs in Leadership (Hon. Causa), all awarded without proper accreditation.
“Some of the fraudulently awarded degrees include three Master of Business Administration (Leadership and Management) and two PhDs in Leadership (Hon. Causa),” DCI added.
Following their arrest, the DCI announced that the suspects were arraigned before the Shanzu Law Courts, where they faced charges for conferring degrees without the accreditation of foreign universities, contrary to Section 28(2) as read with Section 5 of the Universities Act.
“The accused persons entered a plea of not guilty where they were given a bond of Ksh400,000 with similar surety and must be done on oath before the duty court or a cash bail of Ksh300,000. The passports of the two foreigners were also deposited in court with mention set for February 18, 2025,” the statement added.
Fake certificates
In April 2024, President William Ruto disclosed that over 2,100 people with fake academic certificates were working for the government.
At that time, Ruto ordered those with fraudulent certificates to leave government positions and seek repayment for the money they had wrongfully earned from the government.
“We will now confront the monster of corruption head-on going forward, whether it is in counties, whether it is in the national government. Just imagine, a simple audit of people working for the government has revealed that we have 2,100 people with fake (academic) certificates working for the government,” Ruto stated
