CUE Officially Revokes Recognition of Senator Sakaja's Team University Degree

The Commission for University Education (CUE) has officially revoked the recognition of Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja’s degree from Uganda’s Team University.

In a letter to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati on Wednesday, CUE said it arrived at the decision following the completion of investigations into the authenticity of the senator’s degree. 

CUE says Senator Sakaja disregarded, refused, and or ignored requests to provide information and the opportunity to exercise his right to be heard during the investigations.

“The Commission, proceeded with its investigations which included examination of his application, communication from the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) in Uganda and the attached documents together with the information submitted to it by the complainants,” CUE says in the letter dated June 29th.

The commission says investigations revealed that the documents Sakaja submitted from Team University indicated that he undertook a Bachelor of Science in Management (External), which the institution was not accredited by NCHE to offer at the time.

The university is only accredited to offer Bachelor of Science in Management and not Bachelor of Science in Management (External); which are two separate courses.

CUE adds that NCHE indicated that Team University confirmed that Sakaja enrolled for Bachelor of Science in Management and not Bachelor of Science in Management (External).

“Bachelor of Science in Management (External) is not Bachelor of Science in Management, and it contravenes the provisions of PROG/STD 05 guideline 1 of Universities Standards and Guidelines, 2014, which provides that ‘academic programmes title shall adopt universal nomenclature for similar programmes and shall be short, concise and descriptive of its overall content,’” noted CUE.

The commission further stated that Sakaka in the official declaration in 2017 while vying for the position of Nairobi Senator indicated that the only higher education qualification he held was a degree from the University of Nairobi. 

“There was no declaration made pertaining to Team University, from which he now states that he had obtained a degree from in 2016. The University of Nairobi has since written to the Commission, confirming that whereas he enrolled for a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science in 2003, he did not complete his studies,” CUE noted.

It added: “…at the conclusion of these investigations we have not received any evidence from NCHE, Team University or Sakaja that prove that Sakaja pursued studies at Team University and earned a degree in Bachelor of Science in Management (External). Failure to submit even the most basic evidence of study and the process of earning a degree inevitably renders the degree certificate submitted insufficient to prove that Sakaja studied either physically or through distance learning and that he holds an academic degree.”