The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has indicated that it will work closely with Education Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang'i in verifying degrees of parliamentary aspirants in this year's election.
Speaking on Thursday during a consultative meeting by the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ), IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati expressed that the move was in a bid to weed out the numerous fake degrees political candidates have been presenting.
Chebukati reiterated that the commission was committed to ensuring that only aspirants qualified in accordance with the Leadership and Integrity Act would make it to the ballot.
The Act outlines that all aspiring members of the National Assembly should have a degree from a recognised university and meet the ethical requirement of not having falsified any documents.
Various politicians have been accused of possessing questionable education papers with the most recent allegation being against Kapseret Member of Parliament, Oscar Sudi. Other politicians who have had to defend their academic papers include: Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, Kabete MP Ferdinand Waititu, nominated MP Johnson Sakaja and Senator Mike Sonko.
The scrutiny motivated many of the politicians to go back to school in order to validate their 2017 bid.
The rampant accusations coupled with media reports of forged academic papers may have moved Matiang'i to call for an audit in January.
The CS instituted an audit of university degrees in a bid to nullify papers awarded to persons who did not meet the minimum qualifications for joining university. The audit would be run by the Commission for University Education whose mandate is to authenticate certifacates from both international and local universities.
“It is shameful to find people in public leadership who have never sat in anyone’s University classroom. They know they did not qualify for University in the first place and they know to qualify for that office you need a degree, so they cook the papers,” Matiang’i explained while launching the audit.
The NCAJ meeting brought together representatives from various state agencies including the National Police Service, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Attorney General, the Judiciary Committee on Elections, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission and the Registrar of Political Parties.
The various key agencies in the August polls asserted that the country was ready for the elections and measures had been put in place to ensure a free and fair democratic process as well as tight security to ensure peace and stability.
