Kenyatta University Revokes Lecturers PhD For Cheating

Kenyatta University (KU) on Tuesday, September 24 revoked a PhD degree that had been awarded to one of its lectures in 2018 after it emerged that he had plagiarised a thesis belonging to a Nigerian don.

The university's VC Professor Paul Wainaina anounced that they had also discontinued the lecturer who taught at the Department of Social Sciences after complaints from a senior lecturer at Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto Nigeria.

Wainaina further revealed that the lecturer had since surrendered the original doctorate degree that had been issued to him.

The VC disclosed that the university had received a complaint via email from the Nigerian don making plagiarism allegations against one of its lecturers.

"The KU lecturer had been awarded a PhD on August 4 2018, for a thesis he had submitted. Upon receipt of the complaint, the VC set up a committee to review the validity of the claims," read a statement by KU.

Wainaina further stated that the committee handed in its report on April 12, which confirmed that there was overwhelming evidence of plagiarism against the KU lecturer.

"Investigations showed that the lecturer and a staffer from his department had colluded to circumvent the internal KU mechanism where all thesis are subjected to anti-plagiarism software check when the same is turned in. Even though the thesis had failed the plagiarism check, the staffer had given the thesis a green light,

"The certificate has been returned and is in the custody of the university," added the VC.

The lecturer appeared before the student disciplinary committee on  September 20 regarding the matter before he was discontinued.