Kenya has launched a blockchain-based platform for academic credential verification through the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), migrating more than 30 million examination records onto the Avalanche blockchain. The initiative aims to curb certificate fraud and streamline the verification process. The scale of the migration makes it one of the largest government deployments of blockchain technology for educational records by a single nation to date.

According to Avalanche, the system enables employers, universities, and government agencies to instantly verify academic records without depending on paper certificates, which have long been susceptible to forgery. The platform is expected to reduce verification times and lower the administrative costs associated with manual checks. Credential fraud has been a recurring challenge across East Africa, where verification processes have historically relied on manual cross-checks with issuing institutions.

The rollout builds on Kenya's broader push toward digital identity infrastructure. In October 2025, the Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy announced it was exploring Verifiable Credentials (VCs) and digital wallets to replace paper-based academic certificates with cryptographically secured digital records compliant with internationally recognized standards. Under this initiative, citizens would store and share academic qualifications through self-controlled digital wallets, while institutions could verify credentials in real time.

William Kabogo, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (MICDE), opened the Stakeholders Workshop on Verifiable Credentials, convening participants from MICDE, the Ministry of Education, and the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), among others. The workshop focused on building a shared understanding of VCs and digital wallets, examining real-world use cases, and aligning on a roadmap for nationwide VC implementation. Notably, the workshop did not explicitly reference blockchain or distributed ledger technologies.

The academic credential platform follows earlier pilot projects involving digital credential wallets and verifiable credentials for public services. It positions Kenya among a growing number of countries leveraging blockchain technology to secure educational records and digital identity systems. Other governments and institutions, including Malta, Bahrain, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have previously piloted or implemented blockchain-based academic credentials, though few have approached the volume of records covered by Kenya's national rollout.