A document purported to be an Engineering degree certificate of ODM leader Raila Odinga from a Germany University widely circulated on social media on Thursday after being shared by Azimio bloggers.
According to the document, Raila graduated from Otto Von Guericke Technical University Magdeburg as a graduate engineer.
“Mr. Oginga Raila Odinga born 07.01.1945 Sakwa/ Kenya, having fulfilled the requirements of the faculty of Metal processing and Engineering and having satisfied examiners in the faculty and obtained an aggregate grade of good is hereby awarded the Title of Graduate Engineer,” the document dated August 20, 1960.
An additional signature indicates that the document was translated into English on January 25, 2013.
The document was also shared by Raila’s son Raila Junior.
Degree gate closed, showed ours now where’s TEAMS? pic.twitter.com/idZbDlDk2E
— Raila Odinga Junior (@Railajunior) June 17, 2022
Raila supporters were prompted to share the document after DP William questioned if Raila is actually a degree holder, the people that were his classmates and his lecturers.
A number of Kenyans have however come out to point some ‘flaws’ on the certificate saying it is not valid.
First of all, some wondered why the certificate was not signed by the dean of Faculty prof. Dr.-Ing, Montag and the chairman of the Board of examiners.
Secondly, his name, Amollo, that he is commonly identified with, was not indicated in the document.
Others dug deep for more information about the persons listed in the document including pro Montag. The person under the name that they came across is also a professor in engineering but was born in 1964 thus raising questions whether he was Raila’s dean when he was just five years old. It has however not been confirmed if the googled Montag is the same person that was Raila’s dean.
Yaani the dean who signed Raila degree was born in 1964 and by 1969 he signed Raila degree!!! At the age of 5 years ? pic.twitter.com/dC8b7CYWT3
— Dan Nyagah (@dan_nyagah) June 17, 2022
Apart from that, it was alleged that the institution was founded in 1993 yet Raila’s degree was awarded in 1969.
A fact check however confirms that the Otto Von Guericke Technical University Magdeburg was founded in 1993 after merging Technical University of Magdeburg, the School of Education(Magdeburg) and the Medical Academy that were founded in 1910.
This simply means that Raila’s certificate is supposed to have been awarded under the name of Technical University Magdeburg and not Otto Von Guericke Technical University Magdeburg.
Miguna Miguna also came out to point out various issues noting that the certificate was not valid.
“Not a German degree. No legitimate German degree was written in English. No legitimate degree refers to the recipient as ‘Graduate Engineer’. A degree in Engineering does not confer a license to practice engineering. The year and name of university differ from the conman’s CV,” the deported lawyer said.
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