Ernest Mpinganjira
15 April 2007
opinion
Nairobi — The ease with which degree certificates are fraudulently obtained in East Africa threatens the region's institutions of higher learning.
Revelations early this month that Ugandan Members of Parliament are "graduates from back-street universities" came on the back of complaints that the current Tanzanian and Kenyan national assemblies are nests of intellectual flukes.
Media reports say the Uganda Parliamentary Commission withdrew 332 directories it had already printed and circulated to MPs after it emerged that some legislators had inflated their curriculum vitae.
A parliamentary commissioner, Kasule Lumumba, said the scandal had raised questions about Makerere University's capacity to stamp out fraud. It also became obvious the vetting system for elective seats is loose as to allow crooks into the august House.
Lumumba said, "It is unfortunate that people of high positions can lie about their academic qualifications and CVs. We have withdrawn the directory and a new one is needed."
Further indictment came from Clerk of the National Assembly, Aeneas Tandekwire. "You would find someone saying he studied at Nasmilyango College when actually he went to those village schools," Tandkwire said.
That majority of Members of Parliament possessed bogus academic certificates undermined the nascent democracy in East Africa and amounted to sacrilege in academia.
It also raised questions about education standards in the region, especially coming hardly six month after the rumpus generated by massive cheating in national examinations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania at the end of last year.
However, the upside of the Ugandan ruckus is that it offered proof of the perils of forged academic testimonials to informed parliamentary debate, which is the bane of East African legislatures.
MPs in East Africa have perfected the art and science of debating with their stomachs (not brain), attesting to why Tanzania is ever reluctant to embark on constitutional reforms and come up with a post-independence document to safeguard the interests of the ordinary people or why Kenyan MPs blackmail the Government in power to get a pay increase.
Their Ugandan colleagues would rather accept US$3,000 ekimansura (strip art fee) to let President Yoweri Museveni remove term limits on the presidency to rule for life.
Of great concern were the high number of doctorates and masters' grades held by the MPs, prompting House staff to recall the 332 directories that had been dispatched to the legislators.
A similar attempt to post Kenyan MPs' profiles on the Government website in 2004 was met with resistance from semi-literate legislators who wanted to cover their "unscholarly" tracks.
It was discovered that a majority of the MPs possessed questionable academic credentials. Remember "Indian degrees" that flooded the East African job market in the 1980s and 1990s?
An embarrassed Uganda MP, Nandala Mafabi, told a local newspaper, "The directory is flawed. Many people have forged papers but we are going to take them on. We shall report them to the rules and disciplinary committee and if necessary sue them."
One of the MPs accused of forging testimonials had an interesting response to the allegations. "What do you call a person who has been running several businesses for a long time?" asked Tanna Sanjay.
He argued that the experience qualified him for a degree as "professional businessman."
Last year, several Tanzanian MPs, among them Cabinet ministers holding doctorates, were under the spotlight for peddling questionable academic papers that betrayed the incongruity between their intellectual capacities and academic attainments.
For instance, Deputy Health Minister, Dr Anna Abdullah, made headlines for insisting on being addressed as 'Dr' while she is a nurse.
Fake academic qualifications took centre-stage in the countdown to the 2005 polls when presidential candidate Augustine Lyatonga Mrema was conferred an internet degree' to enable him run.
Prior to the 2000 polls, Tanzania changed the Constitution to compel presidential aspirants to possess a university degree. The new benchmark was aimed at locking out Mrema, who narrowly lost to former President Benjamin Mkapa in 1997 presidential polls.
However, after graduating 'online' Mrema never made public the 'foreign university' that awarded him the degree.
In Kenya, a primary school drop out with proof of literacy and numeracy qualifications can become president, intellectual limitations notwithstanding.
Nevertheless, the proliferation of private universities and foreign colleges have provide a cheap and painless means of earning oneself the accolades of high academic standing, hence the brouhaha over university degrees.
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