EXCLUSIVE: Inside the African essay factories that churn out university coursework for 115,000 cheating British students every year
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.
James Waitutu Karuri, centre, an essay factory entrepreneur, poses with his staff at his offices in downtown Nairobi, including his full-time chef (left)
Freelancers at a workspace in Nairobi where students and academics often go to write essays.
A communal workspace in Nairobi popular with freelance essay writers.
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.
enya, 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.
n Mr Karuri's neighbourhood, residences like this mansion are commonplace.
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.
Mr Karuri, who made his money from the essay writing industry, poses in his Nairobi office
….more on
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...es-producing-essays-cheating-UK-students.html
- 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
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.
James Waitutu Karuri, centre, an essay factory entrepreneur, poses with his staff at his offices in downtown Nairobi, including his full-time chef (left)
Freelancers at a workspace in Nairobi where students and academics often go to write essays.
A communal workspace in Nairobi popular with freelance essay writers.
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.
enya, 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.
n Mr Karuri's neighbourhood, residences like this mansion are commonplace.
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.
Mr Karuri, who made his money from the essay writing industry, poses in his Nairobi office
….more on
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...es-producing-essays-cheating-UK-students.html
