By The Weekly Vision
A middle-aged man was charged in a Nairobi court with the offence of forging an academic paper purporting to be from Mount Kenya University. Mr Gulleid Abdullahi Olowis is accused of falsifying a diploma certificate and presenting it to a potential employer as genuine.
The prosecution told the court that on unknown places and dates within the republic of Kenya, with intent to deceive, forged Mount Kenya University Diploma Certificate serial number 01700159, purporting it to be a genuine certificate issued by MKU.
He was further charged that on September 9, 2021, Abdullahi knowingly and fraudulently uttered a forged university certificate to the National Sports Fund human resource manager Charles Maina Muriithi, pretending it to be a genuine academic certificate.
He appeared before the Milimani Principal Magistrate Rose Ndombi and denied two counts of making a document without authority and uttering a false document. Through his lawyer, he urged the court to release him on bond, citing Article 49 of the Constitution.
“Your honor, I plead with this court to release my client on lenient bond terms since it is his constitutional right,” the lawyer pleaded. He told the court that the purpose of the bond is to ensure the accused person appears before the court for trials and cannot be taken as a punishment since the accused remains innocent until proven guilty.
The lawyer added that his client is a law-abiding citizen, willing to abide by directions as set out by the court, and he is not a flight risk. The magistrate directed him to pay a cash bail of Sh200,000 until September when the matter will be mentioned for further directions.
