National Council clears Kenyan Governor Joho

By Darious Magara 

THE National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has cleared Hassan Ali Joho whose academic papers have been a subject of investigation in Uganda.

Joho is the Mombasa County Governor and was a student at Kampala University who was issued a degree  of Business Administration in 2009.

In the council’s letter dated December 5, 2013 addressed to the Criminal Investigations Department and Intelligence Directorate of the Uganda Police headquarters, Kampala University issued Joho with a degree of Bachelors of Business Administration dully.

The letter which is copied to the minister of Education and Sports among others was signed by Prof.  John Opuda- Asibo.

Opuda’s letter reads in part “…accordingly, upon examination of the available information, NCHE is able to confirm that copies of the general Clearance form for academic transcript and a certificate for Bachelor of Business Administration second class upper, were dully issued by Kampala University.”

The NCHE chief also stated that the council’s top management at its sitting of December 4, 2013 discussed the matter and resolved that, the initial communication of March 27, 2013 from NCHE to the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate(CIID)  was erroneously done since the officer involved was not the authorized signatory.  

Opuda also stressed that NCHE wrote to the Vice Chancellor Kampala University on July 24, 2013 questioning the involvement of CIID where NCHE should have carried out the investigations prior to passing the matter on to CIID.

“This is because, NCHE is the statutory body mandated under section 5(f) of the Universities and other Tertiary Institutions Act 2001 (as amended) to among others, receive and investigate complaints relating to institutions of Higher education and take appropriate action” he adds in his letter to the Police.

The letter adds that CIID had referred the matter back to the NCHE for technical guidance.

Opuda while detailing the background of the case said the matter was first registered through a High Court petition in the Republic of Kenya and the matter was disposed off on March 15, 2013 when  the High Court of the Republic of Kenya dismissed the petition with costs.  

The NCHE chief also states that the Directorate of criminal Investigations of the republic of Kenya was not in support of the allegation as evidenced in its July 23, 2013 letter to Kampala University and that the Vice Chancellor of Kampala University Prof. Badru Kateregga convinced NCHE with documents in defense of Joho’s disputed study at the University.

Opuda also wrote to the Minister of Education stating that Joho had been cleared since they were satisfied that his degree was dully awarded.

The CIID boss Grace Akullo has been investigating Joho’s academic transcripts and has visited Kampala University head office at Ggaba and once arrested the university’s academic registrar over the same matter.  

Joho beat Shabal Sulaimani with whom they contested for the Mombasa Couthy governorship in the last elections. Kateregga when contacted for comment yesterday insisted that Joho was awarded a genuine degree.