Employers, universities to benefit from KNEC’s real-time certificate verification

HELLEN LUNALO-KNA

The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has launched a digital verification system that enables employers and universities to instantly validate KCSE certificates.

The initiative aims to streamline the authentication process by providing real-time confirmation of academic credentials.

Speaking during the Third Annual Educational Assessment Symposium at Mitihani House, KNEC Deputy Director of ICT Ahmed Mutanga said the council had moved away from slow manual reviews to a faster, secure, and instant verification system.

Starting with the 2023 cohort, KNEC has added a quick response (QR) code to every certificate, effectively turning them into secure digital tokens.

These codes use AES Advanced Encryption Standard, the same high-level security standard trusted by banks and governments worldwide, to lock away sensitive data like student names, index numbers, and grades.

This ensures that the information remains tamper-proof and authentic.

AES encryption works by scrambling sensitive data into a complex code that is unreadable to the naked eye. This ensures that even if someone takes a photo or intercepts the QR code, the information remains locked and useless without the official digital key.

To manage this, the council has launched TrueCert, a secure electronic platform where all legitimate certificates are preloaded for instant, authorized cross-referencing.

Mutanga noted that by equipping certificates from 2023 onwards with QR codes and securing older ones via blockchain, the council has created a fraud-proof ecosystem that saves time and guarantees that only genuine academic achievements are recognized.

To verify a certificate, users can enter their details directly into the portal, pay via eCitizen, and receive an instant authentication report. A certificate is confirmed as authentic when the decrypted data matches official KNEC records.

A red flag appears if signatures are invalid, data is altered or serial numbers are flagged as nonexistent.

Additionally, Francis Lekupe, a KNEC ICT officer, explained that the move away from the old manual system was necessary, as physical verification was often slow and unreliable.

According to Lekupe, relying on physical security features like watermarks was no longer enough, as sophisticated forgeries often made it nearly impossible for employers to verify a document’s true integrity.

He explained that the new system protects the council’s institutional credibility.

KNEC Chief Executive Officer Dr. David Njegere explained that all certificates are now pre-loaded onto a secure digital platform emphasizing that this automated process eliminates human intervention, cutting verification times down from several days to just a few minutes.