Kimilili Member of Parliament Didmus Barasa has opposed a petition seeking to suspend the conferment of his Doctor of Public Administration degree, describing the matter as politically motivated and based on speculation.
The petition was filed by the Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFKE) against the Commission for University Education (CUE) and Murang’a University of Technology (MUT).
COFKE wants the court to halt the award of Barasa’s doctorate pending investigations into his academic credentials.
The consumer body argues that CUE failed to act on its complaint seeking verification of the MP’s academic qualifications, from his KCSE certificate to his doctoral studies, despite being mandated to regulate university education.
The petitioner has sued CUE and MUT while Barasa has been named as the interested party.
According to court documents, the dispute arose after MUT issued Barasa with a Letter of Completion of Studies dated June 16, 2026, confirming that he had fulfilled all requirements for the award of a Doctor of Public Administration and would graduate during the university’s next graduation ceremony.
COFKE maintains that unless the court intervenes, the degree could be conferred before fundamental constitutional questions are determined, rendering the petition nugatory.
Among the issues raised by the petitioner are whether Barasa met the minimum university entry requirements at KCSE, the accreditation and administration of MUT’s doctoral programme, the qualifications of his supervisors and external examiners, and whether the programme complied with residency and contact-hour requirements for a sitting Member of Parliament.
The federation also questions an honorary doctorate allegedly awarded to Barasa by Northwestern Christian University, an institution previously listed by CUE as unaccredited.
In his response, Barasa through his lawyer Danstan Omari dismissed the petition as misconceived, speculative, premature and an abuse of the court process, arguing that it is driven by collateral political motives rather than genuine public interest.
He stated that he attained a B- in the 2000 KCSE examinations at Kimilili Boys Secondary School before earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Public Administration from Mount Kenya University.
He further says he was lawfully admitted into MUT’s doctoral programme in January 2023 and successfully completed every academic milestone, including proposal defence, seminars, research presentations and his oral thesis defence.
Barasa contended that the petitioner’s claim of a disciplinary mismatch is unfounded, insisting that his academic progression has consistently been in Public Administration rather than engineering.
The MP also filed academic records, including transcripts, admission documents and evidence of his thesis defence, to support his case.
Barasa further threatened to sue COFKE Secretary-General Stephen Mutoro over alleged defamatory social media posts.
In a demand letter dated September 21, issued through his lawyer, Danstan Omari, Barasa demanded the immediate removal and retraction of the publications and seeks sh100 million in damages, warning that legal proceedings will follow if the demands are not met.
“That should you fail to abide by the demands herein within the stipulated two (2) hours, we are under instructions to institute legal proceedings against you at your peril,” read the demand letter.
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