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EXCLUSIVE: Inside the African essay factories that churn out university coursework for 115,000 cheating British students every year
For the first time, MailOnline gained access to the essay factories of Nairobi
In a major investigation, we found the bosses raking in millions while the writers can be paid as little as a dollar an hour
The industry is an ecosystem of big firms, small companies and individuals
In a web of fraud and deceit, a secondary market has even sprung up for selling access to the most lucrative essay opportunities
Essays are delivered to British students with a guarantee that they contain no plagiarism and all is 100 per cent anonymous
Experts called the firms a 'cancer' that is 'undermining our universities' and demanded action from the Government
By JAKE WALLIS SIMONS, ASSOCIATE GLOBAL EDITOR, IN NAIROBI, KENYA
PUBLISHED: 08:41 BST, 23 August 2019 | UPDATED: 16:39 BST, 23 August 2019
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Kenyan academics are working gruelling 12-hour shifts writing essays for hundreds of thousands of British and American students, a MailOnline investigation reveals.
Slaving away in 'essay factories' in Nairobi, the highly educated experts earn as little as a dollar an hour while their millionaire bosses cream off the profits – and cheating Western teenagers take the credit.
The essays are delivered anonymously by email, on time and free from plagiarism, with higher prices charged for a 2:1 or a First. Politicians have called the companies a 'cancer' that is 'undermining our universities brick by brick'.
For the first time, MailOnline gained access to the secretive firms at the centre of the £100 million industry, lifting the lid on one of the most corrosive trends in academia.
Father-of-two Alex Kamau, 33, a computer scientist with two degrees, has been writing essays for cheating students for two years as he is unable to find employment in Kenya
The office block where the headquarters of Mambo Microsystems is located
At first glance, the grimy office block in downtown Nairobi seems to have little connection to the outside world.
All the young, educated workers hurrying in and out are Kenyan, as is their 36-year-old boss, James Waitutu Karuri, who rolls up each day in a different luxury car.
But this is the headquarters of Mambo Microsystems, a major player in a thriving network of companies that produce written-to-order essays for British and American students.
Kenya rules the world in this type of work
Dr Thomas Lancaster, expert in contract cheating
Kenya, which has large numbers of educated graduates but rampant unemployment, has established itself as the centre of the academic cheating universe.
Posters advertising 'academic writing jobs' can be seen in the streets, and the vast majority of university students work for essay factories on the side.
'Like most people, I started my essay writing business while I was at university,' the boss, Mr Karuri, told MailOnline at his penthouse office.
'Over time I began to employ other people to do the work and my business snowballed from there. I expanded into different markets.
'I remember clearly when I made my first million. I felt a great sense of achievement, like all my hard work was paying off.'
The gold panelling and private chef at Mr Karuri's downtown premises, where he employs 15 admin staff and 80 freelance writers, underlines the money that is to be made in this shadowy industry.
In a country where 41 per cent of the population has no running water, Mr Karuri owns a fleet of luxury cars and lives in an exclusive Nairobi suburb that looks more like Beverley Hills than East Africa.
Mr Karuri poses in his office. He is thought to be worth about $6 million, a huge sum in Kenya
An exclusive suburb of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where Mr Karuri lives a life of luxury
One of Mr Karuri's fleet of expensive cars in the underground car park below his offices
In Mr Karuri's neighbourhood, residences like this mansion are commonplace
Meanwhile, 41 per cent of Kenyans are impoverished, living without running water
HOW CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH IT?
Although universities have strict policies against cheating, essay mills are not illegal in Britain and are widely advertised.
Posters and leaflets can be found on campuses and an internet search will bring up thousands of firms.
Many of these companies exploit a legal loophole, offering disclaimers saying they are to be used as a 'study guide' only, while simultaneously advertising ‘guaranteed grades’ and ‘plagiarism free essays’.
All a student has to do is give details of their assignment, a word count and deadline. They can even choose their grade: a 2:1 undergraduate essay from the cheaper sites costs around £30, but others can charge thousands.
One firm offered to create a 30,000-word PhD thesis for £22,416. Almost all of these companies are based abroad, with many in Kenya but others in Eastern Europe and India.
New Zealand, Ireland and Australia have all banned essay factories from advertising, reducing cheating. There are calls for Britain to do the same.
Mr Karuri blocked MailOnline from questioning his employees about their earnings and working conditions. But one of his former colleagues, who asked to remain anonymous, said that writers spent years working 12-hour shifts for paltry sums.
'A Kenyan student starting this work might get 50 cents per page for a school essay, when the original fee might be $50,' the source said.
'As writers get more experienced and prove themselves, they get more difficult assignments that pay more.
'After a few years, for technical writing at PhD level, an experienced writer could earn $2,000 per job – still a small amount of the total but very good money for Kenya.
'At that level, writers subcontract the work, paying peanuts and keeping the lion's share. But on average, most writers just earn about a dollar an hour.'
Mr Karuri – who calls himself 'James Karuri Essays Kenya' in messenger apps – claims to have discontinued the essay writing part of his business in 2017.
But while his firm now offers other services such as web hosting, essay writing is still advertised on his website, Amexwrite.com. And his sales representatives offered the service on two occasions to a reporter, while falsely insisting that they were based in New York rather than Nairobi.
1566577946441.png
Mr Karuri, who made his money from the essay writing industry, poses in his Nairobi office
A screengrab from Amexwrite.com, one of Mr Karuri's websites, which offers 'custom papers written from scratch on a wide variety of topics' and claims to be an American company
An advertisement for essay writers in Nairobi, worded obliquely. When MailOnline telephoned, the advertisers confirmed that they were recruiting staff for an essay factory
Demand for essays is too huge for many Kenyan businessmen to ignore. Latest estimates suggest that 115,000 British students buy essays each year, with the true number believed to be far higher.
'Everything to do with cheating is more widespread than we know,' said Dr Thomas Lancaster, a computer scientist and expert in contract cheating. 'From my research, Kenya rules the world in this type of work.'
Most British students give little thought to whose work they are appropriating. Even if they did, the company websites are opaque, often falsely claiming to be based in the UK or the United States.
Every student's essay commission is filtered into an ecosystem of major writing factories, smaller independents, eBay-style websites, brokers and individuals advertising on Facebook.
It is all done online, like a computer game. When your rank goes up, better commissions are unlocked
Alex Kamau, Kenyan essay writer
The process is dominated by middlemen, each of whom take a sizable cut. In a further web of deceit, there is even a secondary market in selling access to the most lucrative essay opportunities.
Alex Kamau, 33, an IBM expert with two degrees in computer science, has been writing essays from his Nairobi home for two years. He told MailOnline that he has paid tens of thousands of dollars to buy access to better-paid commissions.
'If you want to make big money, you need to pass academic tests and work very well for many years to improve your ranking,' he said. 'It is all done online, like a computer game. When your rank goes up, better commissions are unlocked.
'The quick way is to buy a high-ranking account from a broker. But that is very expensive.'
With two children to support and unable to find a legitimate job despite his expertise, Mr Kamau was desperate.
EXCLUSIVE: Inside the African essay factories that churn out university coursework for 115,000 cheating British students every year
For the first time, MailOnline gained access to the essay factories of Nairobi
In a major investigation, we found the bosses raking in millions while the writers can be paid as little as a dollar an hour
The industry is an ecosystem of big firms, small companies and individuals
In a web of fraud and deceit, a secondary market has even sprung up for selling access to the most lucrative essay opportunities
Essays are delivered to British students with a guarantee that they contain no plagiarism and all is 100 per cent anonymous
Experts called the firms a 'cancer' that is 'undermining our universities' and demanded action from the Government
By JAKE WALLIS SIMONS, ASSOCIATE GLOBAL EDITOR, IN NAIROBI, KENYA
PUBLISHED: 08:41 BST, 23 August 2019 | UPDATED: 16:39 BST, 23 August 2019
1kshares
211
View comments
Kenyan academics are working gruelling 12-hour shifts writing essays for hundreds of thousands of British and American students, a MailOnline investigation reveals.
Slaving away in 'essay factories' in Nairobi, the highly educated experts earn as little as a dollar an hour while their millionaire bosses cream off the profits – and cheating Western teenagers take the credit.
The essays are delivered anonymously by email, on time and free from plagiarism, with higher prices charged for a 2:1 or a First. Politicians have called the companies a 'cancer' that is 'undermining our universities brick by brick'.
For the first time, MailOnline gained access to the secretive firms at the centre of the £100 million industry, lifting the lid on one of the most corrosive trends in academia.
Father-of-two Alex Kamau, 33, a computer scientist with two degrees, has been writing essays for cheating students for two years as he is unable to find employment in Kenya
The office block where the headquarters of Mambo Microsystems is located
At first glance, the grimy office block in downtown Nairobi seems to have little connection to the outside world.
All the young, educated workers hurrying in and out are Kenyan, as is their 36-year-old boss, James Waitutu Karuri, who rolls up each day in a different luxury car.
But this is the headquarters of Mambo Microsystems, a major player in a thriving network of companies that produce written-to-order essays for British and American students.
Kenya rules the world in this type of work
Dr Thomas Lancaster, expert in contract cheating
Kenya, which has large numbers of educated graduates but rampant unemployment, has established itself as the centre of the academic cheating universe.
Posters advertising 'academic writing jobs' can be seen in the streets, and the vast majority of university students work for essay factories on the side.
'Like most people, I started my essay writing business while I was at university,' the boss, Mr Karuri, told MailOnline at his penthouse office.
'Over time I began to employ other people to do the work and my business snowballed from there. I expanded into different markets.
'I remember clearly when I made my first million. I felt a great sense of achievement, like all my hard work was paying off.'
The gold panelling and private chef at Mr Karuri's downtown premises, where he employs 15 admin staff and 80 freelance writers, underlines the money that is to be made in this shadowy industry.
In a country where 41 per cent of the population has no running water, Mr Karuri owns a fleet of luxury cars and lives in an exclusive Nairobi suburb that looks more like Beverley Hills than East Africa.
Mr Karuri poses in his office. He is thought to be worth about $6 million, a huge sum in Kenya
An exclusive suburb of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where Mr Karuri lives a life of luxury
One of Mr Karuri's fleet of expensive cars in the underground car park below his offices
In Mr Karuri's neighbourhood, residences like this mansion are commonplace
Meanwhile, 41 per cent of Kenyans are impoverished, living without running water
HOW CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH IT?
Although universities have strict policies against cheating, essay mills are not illegal in Britain and are widely advertised.
Posters and leaflets can be found on campuses and an internet search will bring up thousands of firms.
Many of these companies exploit a legal loophole, offering disclaimers saying they are to be used as a 'study guide' only, while simultaneously advertising ‘guaranteed grades’ and ‘plagiarism free essays’.
All a student has to do is give details of their assignment, a word count and deadline. They can even choose their grade: a 2:1 undergraduate essay from the cheaper sites costs around £30, but others can charge thousands.
One firm offered to create a 30,000-word PhD thesis for £22,416. Almost all of these companies are based abroad, with many in Kenya but others in Eastern Europe and India.
New Zealand, Ireland and Australia have all banned essay factories from advertising, reducing cheating. There are calls for Britain to do the same.
Mr Karuri blocked MailOnline from questioning his employees about their earnings and working conditions. But one of his former colleagues, who asked to remain anonymous, said that writers spent years working 12-hour shifts for paltry sums.
'A Kenyan student starting this work might get 50 cents per page for a school essay, when the original fee might be $50,' the source said.
'As writers get more experienced and prove themselves, they get more difficult assignments that pay more.
'After a few years, for technical writing at PhD level, an experienced writer could earn $2,000 per job – still a small amount of the total but very good money for Kenya.
'At that level, writers subcontract the work, paying peanuts and keeping the lion's share. But on average, most writers just earn about a dollar an hour.'
Mr Karuri – who calls himself 'James Karuri Essays Kenya' in messenger apps – claims to have discontinued the essay writing part of his business in 2017.
But while his firm now offers other services such as web hosting, essay writing is still advertised on his website, Amexwrite.com. And his sales representatives offered the service on two occasions to a reporter, while falsely insisting that they were based in New York rather than Nairobi.
1566577946441.png
Mr Karuri, who made his money from the essay writing industry, poses in his Nairobi office
A screengrab from Amexwrite.com, one of Mr Karuri's websites, which offers 'custom papers written from scratch on a wide variety of topics' and claims to be an American company
An advertisement for essay writers in Nairobi, worded obliquely. When MailOnline telephoned, the advertisers confirmed that they were recruiting staff for an essay factory
Demand for essays is too huge for many Kenyan businessmen to ignore. Latest estimates suggest that 115,000 British students buy essays each year, with the true number believed to be far higher.
'Everything to do with cheating is more widespread than we know,' said Dr Thomas Lancaster, a computer scientist and expert in contract cheating. 'From my research, Kenya rules the world in this type of work.'
Most British students give little thought to whose work they are appropriating. Even if they did, the company websites are opaque, often falsely claiming to be based in the UK or the United States.
Every student's essay commission is filtered into an ecosystem of major writing factories, smaller independents, eBay-style websites, brokers and individuals advertising on Facebook.
It is all done online, like a computer game. When your rank goes up, better commissions are unlocked
Alex Kamau, Kenyan essay writer
The process is dominated by middlemen, each of whom take a sizable cut. In a further web of deceit, there is even a secondary market in selling access to the most lucrative essay opportunities.
Alex Kamau, 33, an IBM expert with two degrees in computer science, has been writing essays from his Nairobi home for two years. He told MailOnline that he has paid tens of thousands of dollars to buy access to better-paid commissions.
'If you want to make big money, you need to pass academic tests and work very well for many years to improve your ranking,' he said. 'It is all done online, like a computer game. When your rank goes up, better commissions are unlocked.
'The quick way is to buy a high-ranking account from a broker. But that is very expensive.'
With two children to support and unable to find a legitimate job despite his expertise, Mr Kamau was desperate.
