Questions as Records Show Senator Johnson Sakaja Did Not Graduate from University of Nairobi

The controversy surrounding Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja’s academic qualifications has taken a new twist after it emerged that he did not graduate from the University of Nairobi (UoN).

Sakaja, who is eyeing the Nairobi governor’s seat on a UDA party ticket, previously indicated that he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science from the institution.

But UoN's communications director John Orindi told Sunday Nation that Sakaja is still registered as a student at the university and has not completed his course. The official said the first-time senator was admitted to the institution on a module two programme in 2003.

“It is true Sakaja was admitted to the university and was pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science, studied from first year up to fourth year, but is yet to graduate,” Orindi told the newspaper.

“The university earlier issued a statement... and was clear that the person in question did not complete his studies.”

In a verification letter to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) dated May 31st, 2021, the University of Nairobi said Sakaja’s transcripts were incomplete.

“...they have not been signed by the university,” the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs Prof Julius Ogeng’o replied to the DCI, which is investigating Sakaja’s academic qualifications.

In an interview run on NTV last year, the senator claimed he studied actuarial science at UoN from 2002 to 2007 and that he bought his first car, a Mercedes Benz, while in fourth year at the university. 

“Our family did not have a lot of money so I had businesses,” he said.

The Commission for University Education (CUE) said Sakaja presented a degree from a Ugandan university for regularization and intended to use it for clearance for the Nairobi gubernatorial race.

A petitioner named Dennis Gakuu Wahome has filed a complaint with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Dispute Resolutions Committee seeking to have the senator barred from the city gubernatorial race for failing to “meet the constitutional and statutory requirements to have a degree.” 

Wahome avers that while filling the nomination Jubilee Party form in 2017, Sakaja indicated that he graduated from the University of Nairobi.

“The respondent has demonstrated fraud and forgeries that have the potential to erode the public confidence in and diminish the integrity of qualifications in Uganda and Kenyan degrees both regionally as well as globally,” Wahome says in an affidavit filed at the IEBC Disputes Resolutions Committee.

Last week, IEBC said Sakaja applied to CUE asking the commission to ascertain the accreditation status of Team University in Uganda where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Management.

The degree certificate he presented to CUE indicates he graduated on October 21st, 2016, but a booklet from the institution for the graduation ceremony shows Sakaja was not among the six BSC (Management) graduands.