Court okays Mombasa governor qualifications
Mr Hassan Ali Joho.
What you need to know:
Court ordered the National Council for Higher Education to stay out of the matter of cancelling the papers in question.
Kampala
The National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) has said it will not appeal the ruling of the High Court that revoked its decision to cancel the degree awarded to Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho.
Last week, the High Court in Kampala said the Council has no powers to approve or cancel degrees awarded by institutions of high learning. The High Court subsequently quashed NCHE’s resolution to revoke Mr Joho’s degree. According to court, such powers are vested in the university senates.
In a letter dated October 20, addressed to the head of legal department Kampala University, Mr John Kabagambe, the NCHE deputy executive director, Dr Alex Kagume, said they will abide by the court ruling. “…As you know, NCHE is obliged to respect and abide by court orders and decisions,” the letter reads in part.
Justice Stephen Musota, who delivered the ruling, stressed that NCHE is not and cannot be a university Senate and that it cannot have a body equivalent to a university Senate since it is not a university itself. “It (NCHE), therefore, had no power to usurp unto itself the functions of another independent and dully constituted body and that is the university Senate,” Justice Musota said.
In his ruling, the judge also faulted NCHE for having succumbed to external pressure which stampeded it into acting illegally.
Justice Musota also gave an order prohibiting the council from interfering with the issuance of the Bachelor of Business Administration degreeawarded to Hassan Ali Joho. “It follows that an injunction shall be issued restraining the respondent from interfering in any way with the applicant’s grant of the said degree,” he said.
NCHE management had last December cleared Joho’s papers saying it was satisfied that the degree was dully awarded, but it later backtracked on the matter, saying a final decision was yet to be taken by the council’s board.
Kampala University Vice Chancellor Badru Kateregga said this was not only victory for KU, but also a major mile-stone for all universities.
