By Judith Gicobi
In order to give Johnson Sakaja’s case time to be heard and decided, the High Court has temporarily suspended the Commission for University Education’s (CUE) decision to withdraw the status of his university degree.
In his decision, High Court Judge Jairus Ngaah also barred the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) from removing Sakaja from its list of eligible aspirants for the position of Nairobi Governor.
Senator Sakaja filed a lawsuit against CUE, claiming that the decision to no longer recognize his university degree was made unfairly and in favor of his political opponents.
The Nairobi Senator claimed that the commission’s decision was hasty and added that there are still inquiries being made into the situation surrounding his academic eligibility to run for governor.
Sakaja argued that the decision by CUE to remove acknowledgment of his degree infringes his rights to a neutral administrative procedure and fair hearing through attorney Elias Mutuma.
“The decision by the respondent is anchored in mischief and craft political agenda whose main principal is to eliminate the applicant from the Nairobi City County Gubernatorial election…,” read court papers.
Sakaja added his Team University degree certificate and a statement from the executive director confirming his enrollment in and graduation from the Bachelor of Science in Management program via distance learning on October 21, 2016.
Prior to this, three charges against Senator Sakaja were dropped by the IEBC’s Dispute Resolution Committee for lack of prosecution since the complainants did not show up in court.
With the announcement that it will launch an investigation into the reliability of the documents the Senator submitted to the IEBC for approval to run, CUE on Wednesday cancelled the accreditation of Sakaja’s Bachelor of Science in Management degree from Uganda’s Team University.
