The Public Service Commission (PSC) Committee on Public Affairs and Digital Transformation, on September 29, 2025, held a consultative meeting with officials from the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to deliberate on developing a digital system to simplify certificate authentication.
Speaking during the meeting at the Commission house, PSC Commissioner Harun Hassan said the proposed system will save time and enhance credibility in verifying academic credentials. He noted that the initiative will help curb the persistent challenge of fake certificates in public service.
PSC Commissioner Francis Meja, a member of the committee, emphasized the urgency of the intervention, terming the prevalence of forged documents as overwhelming.
“Recruitment is one of our core mandates, and to ensure an effective and efficient public service, a system must be developed to curb the loss of public funds paid to individuals employed using fake certificates,” he said.
KNEC Deputy Director of ICT, Mr. Mutanga Mohammed, disclosed that the new system will be based on blockchain technology and will serve all stakeholders.
“We are already working on knowledge transfer of data sets for each academic year, and all this will be hosted on a dedicated server,” he revealed.
Both PSC and KNEC agreed to integrate the existing KNEC database with the PSC online system as an initial step towards the rollout of the authentication platform.
Also present at the meeting were KNEC Director of ICT Dr. Ibrahim Ochieng, PSC Director of ICT Mr. Harry Ruhiu, and other senior officials from both institutions