Didmus Barasa, Hassan Joho, Oscar Sudi, other Kenyan politicians whose academic papers keep getting questioned

Kenyan politicians have been sucked into the endless loop that is fake-degree problem.

And the issue keeps producing new chapters, with the latest one belonging to Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa.

On September 14, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology’s (JKUAT) Registrar of Academic Affairs, Aggrey Wanyama, wrote to the Consumer Federation of Kenya with a blunt verdict: Barasa's name appears nowhere in the university's alumni records.

The registrar stated that JKUAT held no graduation ceremony in May 2008 and the MP’s Electronic Engineering certificate was not genuine.

The controversy surrounding the MP’s academic credentials follows his completion of a PhD in Public Administration at the Murang’a University of Technology.

In June, Barasa announced he had completed his studies and would graduate with a PhD. He defended his academic record amidst questions about his qualifications.

The confusion deepens when you look at how Barasa's own official biography has shifted over the years.

One version of his National Assembly profile lists a JKUAT engineering degree and a master's from the University of Queensland in Australia; a more recent version drops both altogether, replacing them with a diploma from the Kenya Power and Lighting Training School and a degree in Public Administration from Mount Kenya University.

Through it all, Barasa has remained defiant, announcing in August that he had completed a PhD at Murang'a University of Technology and crediting his family for standing by him through what he called long nights of study, insisting he already holds two undergraduate degrees and two master's degrees besides.

The MP is, unfortunately for Kenya's political class, in familiar company. Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja saw the Commission for University Education revoke recognition of his Team University degree back in 2022.

The revocation came after regulators said no evidence had ever been submitted proving he studied for it.

Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho weathered a similar storm years earlier, when KNEC alleged his KCSE certificate was forged and Uganda's higher education authority questioned whether his Kampala University degree followed proper academic process.

However, a Mombasa High Court judge threw out the entire case in 2018, ruling that investigators had violated Joho's rights and closing the door on further prosecution.

Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi came closest to real legal jeopardy, facing nine forgery charges tied to an alleged fake KCSE certificate and KNEC diploma, before walking free in 2024 when the court found the prosecution had failed to prove its case.

Former Taita Taveta Governor Granton Samboja never fully escaped Kenyatta University's insistence that he was never enrolled there, and while court records went on to reproduce the university's position that his certificates were forgeries.

The case against him was ultimately dismissed on jurisdictional grounds rather than settled on the facts.

Meru's Mithika Linturi had the University of Nairobi challenge the Indian degree he used to gain admission, only for the High Court to rule the university's action unlawful.

Linturi though has still never managed to produce the original certificate.

And former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu's Punjab University qualification landed in court too, after petitioners flagged discrepancies between the name on his degree and the one on his identity documents.