NAIROBI, Kenya, June 15 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) now says there is no room to question the legitimacy of Azimio-One Kenya Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s degree.
In an interview with NTV,IEBC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Marjan Hussein said the poll agency had done due diligence on his academic qualification before the presidential returning officer Wafula Chebukati cleared him for the race.
“By the time he was clearing him (Raila Odinga) he had certified himself that the candidate met all the legal requirements. To that extent I would say that Hon Raila Odinga actually met the requirements,” Hussein said.
Hussein defended the commission’s process of clearing presidential candidates after it was faulted for clearing Umoja Summit Party Walter Mongare only for his clearance to be revoked last minute over his academic qualification.
“For the case of Walter Mongare he had completed his course work and was just awaiting graduation. A form by Commission of University Education had temporarily cleared him,” stated Hussein.
“When there is a problem we say it. We always do a quality assurance when we are done, to go through the issue before us,” he added.
This comes a day after United Democratic Alliance (UDA) poked holes into the academic qualifications of Azimio-One Kenya Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga.
During an interview in Citizen TV Day break program, UDA secretary general Veronica Maina said there is need to relook into the authenticity of academic qualification of presidential candidates.
“You have seen a lot of headlines questioning the university that our biggest opponent, Raila Amolo Odinga, qualified from. It is a very big question which needs to be looked at, not through the lens of just one candidate, but a wider public question,” Maina said.
The UDA secretary general also questioned the legitimacy of Roots Party Presidential aspirant George Wajackoyah posing whether his 17 degrees are genuine or whether they need to be relooked.
“The institutions that trained him should tell us whether he actually has 14 degrees or 7, and how many are recognized or not,” she said.
“It is a bigger question of what qualifications should a politician have before they assume a public office, and it has been a subject of litigation,” she said.
Her statement was in defence of Nairobi gubernatorial candidate Johnson Sakaja who is battling a legal case after his academic qualification were put under public scrutiny.
Sakaja has maintained that he has a degree from Teams University in Uganda, dismissing claims that he did not graduate.
