NAIROBI, Kenya May 7 – A staff member attached to the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) has appealed for leniency after being suspended without salary over allegations of submitting a fake academic certificate.
Loice Nyambura Wamburu, a Personal Secretary at Parliament, says she is innocent and insists the disputed certificate was never used to secure her job.
In letters addressed to the Clerk of the Senate and Secretary to the Parliamentary Service Commission, Wamburu pleaded with the Commission to reconsider its decision, saying the suspension has pushed her and her children into severe financial hardship.
“I am a single parent currently taking care of four dependents who are all below the age of 18 years, two of whom are autistic,” she stated in one of the letters.
“If my appeal is not considered it will cost me irreparable loss, lots of pain and suffering, children will drop out of school because I am the only bread winner.”
The Parliamentary Service Commission informed Wamburu in a letter dated December 4, 2024 that a Business Education Examination certificate allegedly obtained from Gakeo College of Business Studies in 2022 had been flagged as fake during a nationwide verification of academic credentials for parliamentary staff.
According to the Commission, information from the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) showed that Wamburu “did not register nor sit” for the November 2022 examination under the index number appearing on the certificate.
PSC further said the certificate submitted was “a forgery and hence not an authentic document issued by KNEC.”
The Commission warned that forgery is a criminal offence that could lead to prosecution and dismissal from employment.
In a suspension letter dated January 8, 2025, the Commission directed Wamburu to immediately vacate office and stay away pending determination of the disciplinary case.
The letter further stated that she would earn no salary during the suspension period.
– Staffer says salary stoppage caused financial suffering –
The decision, she says, left her unable to meet basic needs, repay loans, and support her children’s medical care.
“My salary had been stopped immediately, thereby occasioning me great financial distress,” she wrote.
She also revealed that the suspension affected her mortgage repayments, Sacco loan payments and medical services for her autistic children.
Wamburu, however, maintains that the allegations are unfair and misleading.
She argues that she was lawfully employed in June 2016 after competitive interviews using other qualifications, including a Bachelor of Commerce degree, a Diploma in Business Management and a Diploma in Secretarial Studies.
“This allegation is clearly untrue,” she wrote.
“While the letter dated 4th December 2024 indicated that the questionable certificate is said to have been obtained in 2022, I was employed by the Commission in 2016.”
She further argued that even her promotion in 2023 did not depend on the disputed certificate because she had already served for nearly seven years and possessed other valid qualifications.
In another appeal letter dated January 31, 2025, Wamburu claimed she had never seen or submitted the alleged forged certificate to the Commission.
She said her earlier plea for leniency had been misunderstood as an admission of guilt.
“I had been accused of forgery and threatened with termination of employment on account of a document that I had never seen nor ever supplied to the Commission,” she stated.
Wamburu is now asking the Parliamentary Service Commission to lift the suspension and grant her a hearing as investigations continue.