The former chairperson of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) said that the government seems reluctant to fight corruption in public universities in Kenya which suffer different forms of corruption. For a long time, the Government did not take a keen interest in auditing universities until recently and most universities did not keep proper records of their revenues and expenditure. He added that the lack of accountability among vice-chancellors provided an environment for corruption to take root.

Following a high-level meeting last Friday, top officers from the police service, the Ministry of Education and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) will be dispatched to six parts of the country to investigate reports of plans to cheat in the forthcoming national examinations. The chairman of KNEC warned principals against collecting money from parents to buy fake examination materials for their candidates.

Kenya’s Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has threatened to go to court if the ministry of education does not take immediate action against the higher learning institutions in the country that are reported to be deducting from their employees’ salaries illegally without remitting deductions to the relevant institutions. Last month the ministry of education released an audit report showing that some public universities in the country were deducting billions of shillings from their employees' salaries and not regularly remitting the money to relevant agencies. The amount the institutions have been deducting illegally from the employees’ salaries is alleged to total approximately US$100 million.

A higher education qualifications framework aimed, inter alia, at curbing the proliferation of fake certificates will be in place at the start of January 2018. In terms of the new Kenya National Qualifications Framework, a national database of qualifications, publishing codes and guidelines will be maintained; an annual report on the status of qualifications will be produced; and interrelationships and linkages across national qualifications in consultation with stakeholders will be reviewed. The framework will also provide accurate graduate data to prospective employers.

Last month a student at Mount Kenya University, lost a case in the High Court in which she was challenging her suspension from the university over exam cheating. The judge dismissed the suit after he found that the disciplinary process the university followed was a fair administrative action. The student had gone to court to seek redress, arguing that the yardstick used by the university’s disciplinary committee to arrive at its verdict was unfair, excessive and in violation of the Constitution and her right to a fair hearing. So far, cheating in examinations in universities is widespread not just in Kenya but in most parts of the world.

Stakeholders are still awaiting a response from the education cabinet secretary to a World Bank report released earlier this year which put Kenya’s Higher Education Loans Board on the spot for mismanaging its funds at the expense of needy students. The report, indicates that the Higher Education Loans Board is spending excessive money on administrative costs that could be added to students’ loans. It recommends an overhaul of the loan disbursement and recovery mechanisms.

The door was slammed shut on politicians rushing to acquire quick degrees before next year’s General Election. A directive by the Kenyan President on Thursday said university students must meet the minimum admission requirements and lecturer times. The Education ministry was ordered to fully implement the directives. “Universities that do not heed these requirements should be dealt with according to the law,” said the President.

Universities involved in corruption will be stripped of their charters, the Education Cabinet Secretary has said. The minister warned that universities that admit and allow unqualified students to graduate will also lose their charters. He also said universities that grant politicians certificates that they are not qualified for ahead of next year’s elections will be not be spared. He spoke during the first graduation of the Cooperative University of Kenya on Friday.

Foreign universities offering degrees in Kenya without accreditation will be fined at least Sh10 million and their promoters sent to jail for three years under a new law meant to safeguard education standards. The Commission on University Education (CUE) will replace the Commission of Higher Education in overseeing university standards.

Kenya has published new rules and put more than 200 institutions on notice in a crackdown that will see 21 managers facing criminal charges for operating illegal colleges, with 63 having been closed over the past year. The action comes in the wake of government plans to bankroll institutions in this key education sector, to help them cope with the rising demand for skills.