The University of Nairobi has dismissed as false a story in a local daily that said 120,000 Masters and PhD degrees awarded by the institution would be rendered ‘useless ‘ on grounds of an audit report.
In a statement on Sunday, Vice Chancellor Prof Peter Mbithi said the story wasn’t factual and neither has the University been censored for awarding MA and PhD degrees to certain individuals ‘who hire researchers to write their theses’.
He termed the statement as a distortion of facts and peddling of falsehoods.
“The University of Nairobi is a reputable university with a strong tradition of unrivalled excellence in academics in the region. We therefore find the statement to be extremely careless, slanderous and disgraceful to Kenyan people and all great men and women associated with the university,” Mbithi said.
The story made reference to findings in an audit report released by the Commission for University Education on February 16 that pointed to various shortcomings in some universities in the running of their degree programmes.
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Mbithi however said the report made no mention of the findings as reported in the local daily.
He said the university will consider taking legal action against the said publication if it fails to retract the statement and issue a public apology to the university.
The apology, Mbithi clarified, should be prominently displayed on the front page of the said newspaper.
“Desist from further publishing any unverified statements on the university specifically on matters pertaining to academics and research,” Mbithi said.
