The Supreme Court has been urged to dismiss an appeal by Wajir governor Mohammed Abdi Mohamud and avoid granting him a degree that he did not have.
Lawyers Ahmednassir Abdullahi and James Orengo yesterday told the six-judge bench that they lacked jurisdiction to make such an award.
Ahmednassir argued that the main issue before the court was whether the governor has a university degree or not which the Supreme Court cannot determine.
"The court will elevate the issue of whether someone has degree or not to a constitutional level. It will be an absurdity of enormous proportions," Ahmednassir said.
He said if the court ruled in favour of Mohamud and overturned the decision nullifying his election it would amount to conferring him a degree that did not exist.
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Mohamud’s election was nullified by the High Court over poll irregularities and lack of a degree, which is a requirement for governor. The Court of Appeal later upheld the decision.
Ahmednassir said the Ugandan government had confirmed the governor never travelled to the country at any time between 2009 and 2012, the period that the governor claimed to have attended Kampala University.
He said the governor never presented his passport to court to controvert the evidence or show that he indeed went to Uganda for studies.
Ahmednassir said in the absence of such tangible evidence, the court, the only option left is for the governor to prove or show the judges that he went to the university in question ‘through osmosis or via telephone’.
“Facts are stubborn my lords. A letter of admission is not evidence of a university degree or even registration. There is no record he attended any classes or record showing he paid school fees. We may find ourselves in a situation where we are conferring a degree on someone who doesn’t have one,” Orengo said.
Lawyer Fred Ngatia acting for the governor asked the court to find that the governor has a degree and allow his appeal.
According to Ngatia, the governor had not graduated with a second degree at the time he appeared before the parliamentary committee and that doesn’t mean he did not have a degree.
He accused the opponents of mutating their case and being rude to the court.
Earlier in the hearing, the judges expunged from the record at least two affidavits sworn by staff from Kampala University which indicated that the governor was at the institution.
The affidavits were sworn by the founding vice chancellor, Prof Badru Dungu Katerega, and Academic Registrar Hamza Segawa. The two had said that the governor was a student between 2009 and 2012.
The court noted that the two affidavits in question were filed out of time.
The court will deliver its ruling on notice.
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