The Supreme Court was drawn into a fresh political and legal fight over Wajir Governor Mohamed Abdullahi’s academic papers, with senior counsel taking opposing positions on whether the dispute could unsettle the 2017 election result.
Chief Justice David Maraga sat with Justices Mohamed Ibrahim, Jackton Ojwang, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Nd’ung’u and Isaac Lenaola as the matter came up before the court.
Ahmednassir Abdullahi, James Orengo and Fred Ngatia, who had featured prominently in the 2017 presidential election petition, found themselves on different sides of the Wajir dispute. Ahmednassir aligned with Orengo in support of Orange Democratic Movement’s Ahmed Abdullahi, while Ngatia appeared with Prof Tom Ojienda and Tom Macharia for the incumbent, Mohamed Abdi, who was elected on a Jubilee Party ticket.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, represented by Kamau Karori, Ken Melly and Mahat Somane, maintained its earlier legal team from the presidential petition.
Ngatia told the court that the absence of a degree could not, by itself, be used to remove a governor from office. He also argued that Ahmed Abdullahi had not challenged the governor’s academic documents before losing the election.
“A degree does not validate an election. This issue of degree was known to the former Governor four years before the 2017 battle. He did nothing about it, and he waited until he was defeated,” Ngatia said.
He further argued that there was no legal requirement for a governor to hold a university degree and said Parliament had removed the degree requirement for both Members of County Assemblies and governors.
Ngatia also faulted the Court of Appeal for holding that the High Court had authority to deal with the degree question. The IEBC took the same line, saying the academic qualifications issue had been closed at the nominations stage and should not have been reopened later.
Kamau Karori said Ahmed Abdullahi’s challenge was a gamble because he had not raised the matter before the commission during nominations. “It is necessary that this court to rule that issues relating to pre-election issues should be dealt by the IEBC,” he argued.
Ahmednassir, responding for the other side, said the Supreme Court was not being asked to decide whether the governor had a degree, but whether it had jurisdiction over the issue. He argued that the High Court, not the Supreme Court, had the power to examine whether Governor Abdi was qualified.
“These degrees and transcripts are not degrees obtained through going through a university,” Ahmednassir said.
He warned that allowing the case to proceed would reopen matters already argued and determined by lower courts, turning it into what he called a “time bomb” for the Supreme Court. Ahmednassir also said the incumbent had never travelled to Uganda to study.
“You have no jurisdiction in this case. There is no answer to this letter that he has not stepped to Uganda,” he said.
Orengo, appearing for the former governor, told the court that the central fact was that Abdi did not have a degree. “Facts are stubborn. A letter of admission is not proof that you attended a university and have a degree,” he said.
