Moi University taken to court over students’ graduation frustrations

Thirteen students at Moi University have sued the institution for allegedly omitting their names among the learners who are set to graduate on August 22.

The 13 include: Violet Atieno, Obegi Ochweri, Tabitha Ndirangu, Verah Manyonyi, Maureen Kwamboka, Yvonne Buluma, Linda Akinyi, John Muthoni, Sarah Wanjiku, Paulette Jakoyo, Ruth Mwangi, Karanja Waithira and Patience Kamutu.

The complainants, who were admitted at the institution’s school of Information Sciences on different dates between 2015 and 2016, filed a petition at the High Court in Nairobi, accusing Moi University of “infringing on their constitutional rights”.

The 13 accuse the university of “discriminating” them, “violating” their dignity, and subjecting them to “psychological torture” by omitting their names from the list of graduands, despite the complainants meeting the “minimum threshold for graduation”.

“The petitioners affirm that they paid their university fees as and when and required, sat for their exams as and when required and handed in their project work by deadline set,” said the 13 students in their lawsuit.

“The petitioners therefore only waited to see their names in the list of graduands scheduled to graduate on 22nd August, 2019.”

According to the petition, Moi University declined to list them among the graduands because they allegedly had missing marks for a unit called Editing and Publishing Skills.

The 13, however, claim they sat for the said-exam.

According to the petitioners, they sought the intervention of the Ministry of Education, and their results for the disputed unit were made available on July 22, 2019.

“On 25th July, 2019, the class representative posted to the class group a graduation list which did not have the names of the petitioners, to their shock and dismay,” the 13 say in their lawsuit.

The complainants say the university denied that that list was genuine, and posted theirs on August 10, 2019, which, the petitioners say, still did not incorporate their names.

“The petitioners have frantically tried to reach the university to include their names in the graduation since the list was released on August 10, 2019, but, to date, the university has given them a deaf ear,” claim the petitioners.

The 13 want Moi University compelled to register them as graduands ahead of the August 22 graduation ceremony.

“Unless the court intervenes and orders the university to include the petitioners in the list of graduands, the petitioners are likely to continue to suffer enormous loss and damage,” the 13 say in their petition filed by their lawyer, Salisbury.

K24 Digital understands that Moi University Vice Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Sanga Kosgey, has been directed to appear in court and explain why the names of the petitioners were omitted from the graduands’ list.

The court said the graduation, scheduled for Thursday, August 22, will go on as planned, and that the petitioners’ case will be heard on Tuesday, August 20, two days to the university’s 38th graduation ceremony.