Leaders qualifications anxiety will pose security risks, Matiang’i warns
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has indicated that if long-running issues over aspirants’ eligibility to run for specific political seats are not resolved promptly, security problems will arise.
Speaking at the 18th Conference of Ambassadors and High Commissioners in Nairobi Matiang’i claims that supporters’ mobilization to stir against explicitly expressed qualifications is raising tensions and straining electoral security plans.
The sentiments come at a time when several politicians, notably Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja, are defending their university degree credentials after it was discovered that some of them may be using phony qualifications.
Despite the dispute over his degree certification, Sakaja declared yesterday that he will run for governor in August, accusing President Uhuru Kenyatta of sabotaging his campaign.
Sakaja said on Facebook that his Team University degree is genuine and that the “purported cancellation of my credentials by the Commission for University Education (CUE) chairman is null and invalid, and politically motivated.”
Sakaja said on Facebook that his Team University degree is genuine and that the “purported cancellation of my credentials by the Commission for University Education (CUE) chairman is null and invalid, and politically motivated.”
He further criticized the Commission’s chairman of being forced and intimidated into improperly revoking recognition of legitimately given accreditation.
“On June 6, I presented my qualifications to the CUE for recognition. The commission conducted due diligence by first writing to their counterpart in Uganda, National Council for Higher Education, which in turn wrote to the university,” he said.
The High Court is expected to rule on the legality of Sakaja’s degree certificate, which he provided to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in his bid to become Nairobi Governor, on Sunday.
The legislator’s problems began a while back when Uganda’s Team University’s Bachelor of Science in Management degree was cancelled by the Commission for University Education (CUE).
