Maseno University and the board of medical laboratory technologists and technicians will jointly pay Sh500,000 to a former student.
The student joined the university in 1999, graduated in 2010 but the board refused to register him to practice.
Stephen Siangani Lungwe said he took long to conclude his bachelors of science in biomedical science and technology in 2010 because of fee struggles but upon graduation, he hoped to be allowed to hunt for a job.
He said over a decade on, he has not been able to find a meaningful job because the Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technologists Board refused to register him, saying the university was not accredited to offer that course.
The board only told him this after paying it the requisite fee to be registered, he said.
In 2018, Lungwe decided to petition the Ombudsman to intervene because although the board told him about declining to register him, they only communicated to him via a phone call but refused to do it in writing.
The letters by the Ombudsman went unanswered.
In November 2021, the man sued the university and the board, complaining that when he did the course, fulfilled all the requirements and graduated, he had a legitimate expectation to be registered and find a job or get himself engaged in a meaningful economic activity.
“The petitioner decried the respondents’ actions which he stated have caused him untold suffering and caused him to remain unemployed this far, as he does not have 2nd respondent’s license to enable him operate as a laboratory technician and/or technologist,” the court papers read.
Besides, he said, the challenge has seen him remain indebted to Helb as its principal loan of Sh169,000 had accrued interest and penalties to Sh800,000 as at 2021.
While the board did not file a response in the case, Maseno University acknowledged that Lungwe was their student.
It’s response by the deputy vice chancellor in charge of academic and students’ affairs Prof Mary J Kipsat indicated that the university offered the course in 1999 when the board was non-existent and that there was no certification requirements for its graduates then.
“She explained that at the time of the 1st respondent’s [the university] establishment and subsequent admission of the petitioner in 1999, the 2nd respondent [the board] was non-existent, [and] that the petitioner’s course had however been accredited at the time it was offered by the Commission for Higher Education, but was not subjected to a professional body,” it said.
However, in 2011, the professor told the court, the board wrote to the university indicating that an audit of the course shows that it required six more units added to it for its graduates to be registered.
This made the university to recall all 79 degrees awarded in the course, asking its students to go back to the lecture halls to learn and write exams for the six courses before graduating with the degrees and then get registered.
It passed the information through newspaper advert.
It seems Lungwe did not see the advert, like many others as only 21 students went back.
“The call was made through an advertisement in the local daily newspapers and the university website. Out of the 79 recalled students, only 21 returned and successfully completed the course [and] graduated in 2012 with their previous degree being cancelled…. the petitioner has not returned to complete the course.”
Lungwe told the court that the relationship he had with the university “was contractual and ended upon conferment of the degree”.
“In this way, the 1st respondent did not have any legal basis to recall the students once the contract was terminated.”
“Moreover, he noted that the 1st respondent was insensitive to the delay and time wastage caused to the petitioner by requiring him to go back to school,” he said.
In the end, the High Court agreed with the complaint by Lungwe, finding that the university and board violated his rights.
It ordered that the university and board jointly pays the man Sh500,000.
It also said that the man should be allowed back to the university to study the six courses at half the cost and upon qualification, graduate and seek registration.
