Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has explained how he converted his D- (minus) grade to a bachelor’s degree.
Joho revealed that he skipped one year of school because his parents could not afford to take him to Form One.
In court documents seen by the Sunday Standard, Joho says he sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) at Tom Mboya Primary School in 1988 and schooled at home for one year before joining Serani Secondary School in 1990.
“Owing to the fact that neither I nor my parents could afford or raise the fee required for me to join secondary school in 1989, I stayed out of school that year doing odd or menial jobs to eke out a living,” he says in a sworn affidavit.
In the affidavit dated May 25, 2017, Joho says he enrolled for a pre-university course at Kampala University that allowed him to take a certificate course after attaining a mean grade of D- (minus) in the KCSE of 1993.
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In 2008, he pursued and obtained a certificate course in business administration, paving the way for him to enroll for a diploma course in human resource management in the same university in 2009.
“Having satisfied the requirements prescribed by the Senate for the award of degree of bachelor of business administration, I was admitted to the degree on February 28, 2013,” he states.
The outspoken governor has attached copies of his academic papers and transcripts as he seeks to fight off claims that he forged documents to enrol for a parallel degree at the University of Nairobi (UoN).
Fake letter
On May 3, the state appealed a High Court order that barred the police from arresting or charging Joho over claims that he had forged his academic papers. On March 31, the High Court barred the Director of Public Prosecutions from prosecuting Joho, ruling that investigations against him appeared malicious and politically motivated.
And yesterday, it emerged that Lands Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi had launched investigations, when he was in-charge at the Education ministry, into circumstances under which Joho obtained admission to the UoN, a probe that cleared him.
“That through my own personal effort and investigation, I have received information that shows the UoN conducted an internal investigation on the matter on or about 2014 and could find no reasonable basis upon which to indict me of any wrong doing,” says Joho.
On January 9, 2014, UoN Chief Legal Officer RW Ngondo wrote to the dean, School of Business, asking for the origin of a genuine letter of admission in Joho’s file using a C+ (plus) grade.
“Kindly but urgently lets know the outcome of the investigations. The Ministry of Education is anxious to get a formal response from the vice chancellor,” Ngondo said.
On February 21, 2014, the dean, Josiah Aduda, wrote back saying they were unable to establish how Joho’s records were tampered with. “Our investigations established that Joho’s admission was processed by the admission office. The school has not established how the fake admission letter appeared in his student file,” Aduda wrote.
Joho says the “apparent interest of Prof Kaimenyi in his file and records at the UoN, though curious, betrays and/or confirms my apprehension that there is a nefarious scheme against me by state actors”. He also accuses the CID and DPP of “emboldening their action and invigorating their ill intended course” on a statement by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who had vowed in public to deal with him firmly.
