BBC World Service
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Kenya's ghost writers help students abroad succeed - but never get credit themselves.
When Oxford sociology professor Patricia Kingori first found out about so-called 'shadow scholars', she had to know more.
'Shadow scholars' are paid to write hundreds of thousands of essays, books, and even PhD papers for students in places like the US, and the UK each year - but they never get recognition for their work.
They're part of a billion-dollar global industry, with an estimated 40-80,000 people working in Nairobi alone. In a quest to find out who they were, Patricia set off from the UK to try and meet some of them.
It turned out the shadow scholars couldn't wait to tell the world they existed.
"They were some of the most intelligent people I've ever met in my entire life," Patricia says. She was flattered to find that they'd done in-depth reading of her own work, until she realised why.
" They were asking me these questions to check that I'd done the work myself. They just didn't take any of these assumptions for granted."
Patricia met women like 'Mercy' - not her real name - a single mum who was exhausted from writing essays to earn a living. She began to wonder, in different circumstances, could Mercy's life have been hers?
In 2021 Patricia had been made Professor Kingori, the youngest female and the youngest ever black professor at Oxford University.
She'd moved to the UK from St Kitts when she was 10. Education was prized in her family, but her aspirations weren't always encouraged outside.
When a teacher told Patricia she would never make it as a sociologist, her mother made her promise to study sociology anyway.
Meeting shadow scholars made Patricia think again about who we judge to be the brightest and the best.
"I genuinely feel that the world would look a completely different place if these people were given fair opportunity and fair chance. But they're not," she says.
Patricia says the writers themselves don't like the phrase shadow scholar. "They didn't see themselves as the shadow at all. They saw themselves as the light, and the people using their work as the shadows."
She says these customers are mostly people from North America, The UK, Australia and Ireland - and predominantly male.
And she’s firm in her belief that the shadow scholars who write for them need to be able to come out of the shadows, and get the credit they deserve.
"When you see the shadow scholars, and you know how incredible they are... you want them to be the ones who go up on stage and get the certificate in their name in front of their friends and family."
🎧 Outlook https://bbc.in/4ewvZDW
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Mark Onyango
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Back in the days🔥🔥💥🙌😂😂we would even write medical papers🥵wherever that brain went to IDONNO
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Ann Marie De Die
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I had no idea that this form of cheating even existed. Apparently I went to university in the dark ages when we did all of our own work. 
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Poppy Muindi
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ChatGPT was also trained by Kenyans... in fact most AI agents have been trained by Kenyans and Africans for cheap. That's why our writing is likely to be accused as AI generated, we taught ChatGPT to write like a Kenyan.
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Jodi Tobman
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I am in a state of shock that I am reading of a normalization of cheating. How is that an industry? Kudos to Patricia Kingori from the beautiful island of St Kitts for bringing it further into the light.
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Valentine Wairimu
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The part of needing recognition I doubt mainly because, we aren't proud of it, we do it to survive.
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Aurora Balalia
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Of course, this raises so many more questions, such as why are the universities not paying these ghost-writers to identify the cheating students?
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Duke M. C. Nwosu
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This is why I’m very glad that schools are now adopting a compulsory component of defense for every essay. You submit, then you come before the class and defend the work. It can be unfair to students with stage fright and all those diverse public limiting factors, but it ensures that even if students buy essays, they atleast get to read them up, well enough to defend the contents. We achieve same goal: learning from the experience. Same goes with generating essays from AI.
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Ester Laub
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Such a powerful reminder that talent is everywhere, but opportunities and recognition are not equally distributed. These brilliant minds deserve to be seen, heard and given the chance to shine under their own names.
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Ezekiel Kuloba Mprsk
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After my first undergraduate studies, I was hired by a small private business in 2012... They were paying 15k... In NAIROBI. After 2013, I left it... I started the writing business or ACADEMIC WRITING as we preferred to call it. I did it for the whole of 2014...I was making at least 60k monthly... In the house...😂😂
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Martin Kelly
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I confess I did that. I wrote papers for a Saudi Prince when I got to DC in the 1990s. He was doing an MA in john Hopkins in " MENA STudies " and I, who had no degree , was writing his papers .
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Joel Muinde
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And they did this before the age of AI! Let that sink in.
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Scholastica Achieng Odhiambo
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You can also realize that AI was trained in Kenya. The English always look like what we have learned since primary school.
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Japheth JB
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Kenya is a hub of bright students and scholars who lack opportunities to explore the world of academic. They do this to get 10-20 usd/euro for food and other essentials stuffs.
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Mwansa M Mysta
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In first year we had a guy who would write essay for half the class and no one got caught.
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Jaco De Wet
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How does one reach them, for someone to assist in finishing the writing of a book?
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Rich Brain
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These shadow scholars are living good life here. They lock themselves in the house and go to party in the evening. You may think they are in a sort of a cult but this is the secret. Meanwhile..nani anauza account wasee?🤣
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Herman K Kithinji
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I paid my university fees through essay writing for top PhD scholars
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Thyolo
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DM for those 'shadow' services, ANYONE
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Jimmy Wa Gichigi
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I did it for three years to survive. I however appreciate the knowledge picked along the way across almost all disciplines. Philosophy, sociology, psychology, medicine, law, leadership and administration. But I just wonder how empty is the workforce in those first world countries. How do they work????
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Lucy-Ann Kent
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Correct me if I'm wrong, are these what we call "essay farms". Where students buy essays to submit themselves. Or is it not students ordering papers but academic scholars themselves? The essay farms will produce essays to a specific grade requirement as well, no point submitting a first class essay and raising suspicion when you're a 2:2 student.
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Melena Dacruz
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If done properly, a shadow writer should be acknowleged as such, particularly in creative writing such as novels or (auto)biographies. However, they are not responsible for the content or the academic findings of a study or a piece of research and any claims that the academia may be theirs is dishonest at worst and at best, would undermine the work of a scholar.
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Paul Wanjohi
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That is Kenya to the world every opportunity may it be in academia, innovation,IT name it we are taking everything to the next level.We are not Silicon Savannah out of nothing
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Kariuki Wangeci
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Only wrong thing about this incredible piece is "need to be recognized," because we wouldn't wish to. As former writer, we're learned folks, just disfranchised and forced to help others cheat! But now that we ain't killing anyone, and we get to have food on the table and roof on our heads, it's fine.
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New Dixie
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Was this a secret? Nairobi has also established itself as one of the primary data labor hubs in Africa, meaning that when you interact with prominent AI models, there is a high likelihood a Kenyan helped train them. Google Gemini, Meta AI, Chatgpt etc
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Julio Alejandro Freeman
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40,000 ghost writers in Kenya alone? That's journalism in 2026.
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Luciah Akolong
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I think the correct term should be "Academic Consultants" and not shadow writers.
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Millie Kamila
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How does this industry stand with the emergence of AI? Probably the demand for such shadow writers should decline, no?
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Wycliffe Wicky
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Essays only? Some have done technical staff like Data Analysis - but as consultants not 'ghost riders'
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Maestro
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As we are speaking University of Wisconsin Madison should award me a degree bwana
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Simon James Lokudu
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Nigeria might be having many of them.
This one will now uncover what has been hidden for a while. I think now thinks are going change it will not be necessarily essay to qualify someone for scholarship
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Andrew Solomon
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The word 'succeed' should be replaced with 'cheat'. I'm impressed by the ghostwriters academic standards though.
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Brunhilde Pomsel in a still from the documentary film, ‘A German Life.’ (Courtesy)
