Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho Summoned Over Forgery
Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho has been summoned by police to
record a statement on his academic certificates after the national
examinations body disowned his result slip as a forgery.
The
Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) wrote to the Director of
Criminal Investigations claiming the 1992 Kenya Certificate of Secondary
Education result slip that Mr Joho is alleged to have used to gain
admission to the University of Nairobi was forged.
On
January 26, 2017, the Knec acting chief executive officer, Ms M G
Karogo, in a confidential statement of results addressed to the DCI,
confirmed that a certain Ali Hassan sat his KCSE at Serani Secondary
School in 1993 and scored a mean grade of D-. The grade does not qualify
one for university admission and is not bridgeable.
This
leaves Mr Joho in a delicate position because it could invalidate his
two bachelors degrees — whose authenticity has been questioned — and
expose him to criminal charges.
The popular governor,
who has publicly taken on President Uhuru Kenyatta, is treating the
police summons as “intimidation” after an angry Head of State threatened
to “sort him out” following their latest spat.
“The
intimidation continues,” said Mr Joho on Monda. “Today (Monday) at
4:30pm, I received a summons from Mr Pius Macharia to appear at the
Regional DCI headquarters, Mombasa, and record a statement.”
The summons, .“I, Mr Pius Macharia, an Assistant Inspector-General of Police
based at Regional DCI Headquarters, Mombasa, have reasons to believe you
have reliable information which may assist in completing investigations
in a case of forgery contrary to Section 345 as read with Section 349
of the Penal Code.”
Citing Section 52(1) of the
National Police Service Act, the summons required Mr Joho to “personally
appear before Mr Samuel O Nyambengi, an Assistant Inspector-General of
Police investigating the alleged offence, on 28th March, 2017 at 10 am
at the Regional DCI Headquarters, Mombasa, for statement recording”.
Mr Joho said the summons was delivered to him by Mr Macharia.
The
Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) deputy party leader however said since
he had already scheduled activities for Tuesday, he will appear before
the DCI on Wednesday.
“Accordingly, I shall appear on
Wednesday, 29th March, 2017 at 10:30am for statement recording,” Mr Joho
said in response to the summons and added: “I know I will be vindicated
once again and this will never deter me from pursuing the
transformation agenda for my people.”
When the i
visited the school, the deputy principal said his boss was not in and
ordered the guard to not to allow the team to take pictures.
In
the evening, however, school principal Abbas Juma Ulaya admitted in a
press statement that “Ali Hassan” was a “bona fide student in our
institution between February 1990 and November 1993”, having enrolled on
“February 22, 1990 under admission number 326” and sat his KCSE in
“November 1993 under index number 16032063”.
Also on Monday, two men came out to claim that they sat the Form Four exam with Mr Joho at Serani in 1993.
Mr
Juma Hamid and Mr Stephen Ochieng' spoke even as the University of
Nairobi (UoN), an institution the governor is claimed to have enrolled
in in 2009, declined to comment on the matter on grounds that it was
under investigation.
“The matter is under DCI probe and
the institution cannot comment on it,” said UoN corporate affairs
director John Orindo. “It is the DCI that can give information on the
matter.”
Earlier, the governor’s spokesman, Mr Richard
Chacha, had dismissed as “political propaganda” claims that Mr Joho used
a fake result slip to get admission to university for an undergraduate
degree in commerce.
Speaking during an interview in
Mombasa, Mr Hamid and Mr Ochieng' said they schooled with the embattled
governor from 1990 to 1993, when they completed their “O” level.
“(The
news) appeared shocking to all of us because we schooled with him from
Form 1 to Form 4 and we even took pictures with him the day we finished
our exams.
“If his certificate is fake, then how come I
used my certificate to get a job? I have 19 years experience and my
papers have not been termed fake.”
Mr Hamid, who works at a Mombasa-based company, said it was confusing to see reports that Mr Joho sat his KCSE in 1992.
Mr
Hamid said: “We finished school with the Joho I know in 1993. I have
many other friends who can attest to that, but I do not know those
doubting him. They know it better”.
Mr Ochieng', who
described Mr Joho as a cheerful deskmate, said it was laughable “to see
people saying he (the governor) did not sit his exams yet we, the
classmates, know better.
“I joined school in February
and we attended school with him from Form 1 to Form 4. Our principal, Mr
Mohammed Ali, can tell you more about him, but what I know is that we
were with him and we finished school with him.”
They
said in school Mr Joho was interested in football and music. Other
Mombasa residents expressed mixed reactions on the claims.
At
the weekend, Mr Ananiah Mwaboza, a running mate for the Mombasa
governorship on a Jubilee ticket, raised a storm when he claimed that Mr
Joho used a forged result slip to get admission to university.
“There
is no doubt that Joho forged the 1992 result slip, applied for
admission to the University of Nairobi for a BCom degree course, got
admitted to the university as student number D33/27261/2009, paid
university fees but never graduated,” Mr Mwaboza claimed.
He
added: “It is suspicious how the governor was able to do two degree
courses simultaneously in different countries. He was doing a BCom at
the University of Nairobi after enrolling on September 4, 2009 and a BA
in Business Administration at Kampala University, for which he enrolled
in 2009 and graduated with a degree on February 28, 2013.”
But
Mr Joho denied the allegation, with Mr Chacha terming the reports as
“continuous but futile efforts by the Jubilee government to discredit
Governor Joho”.
“Since 2013, the war has been going
on,” said Mr Chacha. “They started with their bloggers and then turned
to the newspapers. There is nobody else in Kenya questioning the
legality of Governor Joho’s certificates except Jubilee. Why is that
so?”
Mr Chacha said that Governor Joho sat his KCSE in 1993 at Serani Secondary School in Mombasa.
“The
1993 files containing names of all the KCSE candidates at the school
are available,” said Mr Chacha. “Anyone can walk there and verify the
facts that Governor Joho was one of them. It is as simple as that.”
The
Knec letter said Ali Hassan, index number 16032063, got a D plain in
Kiswahili, History and Government and Islamic Religious Education and an
E in Mathematics, Physical Science, Biological Sciences and Commerce.
The
results are corroborated by school documents, which give a list of 16
candidates for the 1993 KCSE. Hassan is candidate number 8.
The
1992 result slip, disowned as a forgery by Knec, shows a mean grade of
C+ with Mr Joho scoring B plain in English, B- in Biology and Commerce,
C+ in Chemistry and C in Kiswahili, Mathematics, Geography, as well as
Social Education and Ethics.
Mr
Joho’s recent woes come two weeks after Mr Kenyatta said he will teach
him a lesson. Mr Joho however maintains that he continue telling
President Kenyatta “the truth”.