Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has an illegally acquired degree and his leadership is also illegal, Senator Hassan Omar has said.
“Forgery is forgery,” Omar said, adding anybody alleged to have committed a criminal offence must be punished.
“If you have a degree acquired illegally it means you are a governor illegally,” he told journalists in the county on Thursday.
“If education and excellence are not important, why do parents run around? Work hard..work very hard. That’s what this country needs; men and women of integrity,” he added.
Omar described Joho as a “dead horse” governor whom he said will be punished if the National Super Alliance takes over power after the August 8 vote.
He said the troubled county boss should step aside and allow investigations into claims that he forged his academic papers.
“I can assure you that after NASA takes over, forgery will be one of the first matters that will go before our criminal jurisdiction. We cannot condone this,” he said.
“If you have a criminal case step aside. We don’t want you to influence investigations,’ he added during the press conference at Renaissance Center on Thursday.
Omar, who is Wiper secretary general, said they will prosecute any criminals no matter their affiliations to Jubilee Party or NASA.
He said the facts were glaring and that the Opposition coalition will not condone impunity by anyone, regardless of their status.
What remains to be seen is whether Raila would lead Joho’s prosecution should he become president. Joho has been termed his right hand man and Coast point man since Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba quit ODM.
The claim is that Joho presented a forged 1992 examination result slip with a C+ mean grade for entry into UoN, for a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Human Resource Management.
Joho denied the claim and took “pride” in his D – in the 1993 KCSE examination saying failure pushed him to succeed. Other reports stated he bridged and legally joined the university.
Regarding Omar’s sentiments, he told the Star on Thursday: “That is wishful thinking.”
But noting failure should not be glorified, the Senator said people who have failed cannot tell Kenyans the lie that it is okay not to succeed.
“We cannot tell the people of Mombasa that failure is okay,” he said, adding “I’m in a political contest so I will say things that even people in the same coalition will not agree with”.
Omar further criticised Joho for getting anticipatory bail to stop his arrest.
He said if Kenya Ports Authority staff were sacked for submitting forged academic papers, so should public servants.
The legislator said many politicians seek office for impunity and that illegality runs deep in Kenya’s political system.
He mentioned Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko and Kabete MP Ferdinand Waititu as some of the leaders with questionable degrees. The two have denied the claims and defended their qualifications.
“This is a manifestation of a government and a political system that is corrupt. Through corruption you are able to forge a certificate and degree, and corrupt systems to become governor,” Omar said. said.
Regarding the election, the Senator accused Jubilee and Coast regional coordinator Nelson Marwa of interfering with the flow of the election.
“We where the rain started to beat Joho and President Uhuru Kenyatta, it was not a political fallout but business,” he said.
On Wednesday, Tom Mboya Primary School in Mombasa wrote to the EACC confirming that Joho was their student and sat his KCPE there in 1988.
Head master Babu Suleiman said he scored 286 marks out 600 for the six subjects he sat during the examinations.
Detectives from the anti-graft agency visited the school on Wednesday as part of their investigation into the Governor’s academic background.
Omar is among politicians competing to replace Joho after the August 8 general election but some critics have said his plans are far-fetched.
He has been critical of Joho and said the incumbent is not fit to lead or to be president in 2022 because his ideologies, qualities and ability are inadequate.
Source link-the-star.co.ke
