Nairobi senator Johnson Sakaja chance to be on the ballot paper for the county’s gubernatorial race is now hanging on a loose rope because of the controversies surrounding his academic qualifications.
Despite the fact that he was cleared to contest for the position on a UDA ticket, IEBC is on his neck after questions were raised about the authenticity of his degree certificate.
Sakaja is said to have presented a Bachelor of Science in Management from Team University, Uganda for him to be cleared for the Nairobi gubernatorial contest.
Four petitions were filed against Sakaja by voters Evans Kaita, Dennis Gakuo, Alex Abere and Timothy Ayieko. The four want his clearance certificate revoked over questionable academic qualifications.
According to Kaita, It is not clear how Sakaja completed his Bsc. in Management while at the same time serving as a full time MP, after alleging that he graduated from the institution in October 2016.
He further questioned how the degree was awarded shortly before he submitted his nomination papers to IEBC.
Kenyans have however been left wondering why Sakaja would pose as a former student of UoN but submit papers from a Ugandan college.
The credibility of the Ugandan degree is also questionable after a video of Sakaja and Nyashiski engaging in a conversation in 2020 emerged. In the video, Sakaja confirms that he has never studied outside Kenya.
Fellow Kenyans, treat this with a lot of seriousness. Johnson Sakaja has never studied outside Kenya. He produced before @IEBCKenya , a degree from Uganda.
This video was recorded in 2021.
RETWEET until it gets to IEBC, @DCI_Kenya @EACCKenya. pic.twitter.com/9kunyMkJ1b— Solomon Kuria (@kuriasolomonK) June 12, 2022
It was further revealed that his name was not on the October 16, 2016 graduation list whereby only 6 students graduated with the Bsc in Management.
The institution however said that he attended the programme online and the National Council for higher education in Uganda also confirmed the same.
In his biography, it is stated that Sakaja completed his high school education at Lenana. He later joined University of Nairobi for the undergraduate studies in Actuarial Science after failing to join Harvard University due to lack of fees but had qualified in the entry exams.
In an interview with Churchill in June last year he confirmed that he studied Actuarial Science in UoN and was a fourth year student in 2007. He also said that he was called to do two courses, the Actuarial Science one and Civil engineering. Sakaja said that he did both courses in first year before deciding to focus on Actuarial Science.
His big blow came recently when UoN confirmed that he is yet to graduate since joining the institution 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,” said Mr Orindi,” UoN’s director for Communication John Orindi told the Nation.
A number of Kenyans are now convinced that the senator has fooled them right from his name, age, place of birth among other issues after the petitioners referred to him as Jonson Koskei Sakaja and not Johnson Arthur Sakaja as he is known.
“Sakaja lied about his name, age, tribe, education etc. So what’s authentic about this fraud?? IEBC should immediately disqualify Sakaja,” Son of a peasant said via a tweet.
IEBC however gave Sakaja one last chance to redeem himself from the controversies by presenting education evidence to the commission’s dispute resolution committee on Monday June 13.
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