Ex-NGO Boss Fazul Mohamed Accused of Holding Fake Egerton University Degree

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has, for a second time, been asked to investigate former Private Security Regulatory Authority (PSRA) Director-General Fazul Mahamed over alleged forgery of a Bachelor of Science degree.

Mr Haggai Thenye Odiawo wants the commission to investigate Mr Mahamed, saying Egerton University disowned his degree a decade ago.

The EACC in 2016 investigated Mr Mahamed over the biochemistry degree, which he used to secure a job as the NGO Coordination Board chief executive.

The investigation stalled after the said forged degree went missing from Mr Mahamed’s personnel file.

Mr Mahamed did not respond to calls to his known mobile phone number. He also did not respond to text and WhatsApp messages on the degree.

In a 2017 quarterly report, the EACC said investigations showed Mr Mahamed did not have a degree, but that with the absence of the said forged document, it could not sustain prosecution of the then-NGO Coordination Board chief.

Degree from Egerton

In his complaint to the commission, Mr Odiawo says Egerton University’s letter to the National Council of NGOs, and a 2016 Commission on Administrative Justice report confirm that Mr Mahamed did not have a degree, which was a basic requirement for the two corner offices he occupied.

The complainant wants the EACC to recover more than Sh56.2 million in salary Mr Mahamed drew at the NGO Coordination Board and the PSRA, and to investigate if he was involved in procurement and other irregularities when in office.

In a letter to the National Council of NGOs on September 10, 2015, Egerton University stated that Mr Mahamed was admitted to the institution in 2007 to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree before switching fields of study within the same faculty.

The letter added that Mr Mahamed left Egerton University in 2010, when in his third year and did not graduate.

The Commission on Administration of Justice investigated the same complaint in 2016, and interviewed two former NGO Coordination Board members who said Mr Mahamed presented a Biochemistry degree from Egerton University when being interviewed for the chief executive position in 2014.