Didmus Barasa says MKU awarded his degree as JKUAT dispute deepens

Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa has disputed claims that he holds an engineering degree from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), saying his undergraduate degree is instead from Mount Kenya University (MKU).

Barasa made the clarification on Thursday, September 17, 2026, as questions over his academic history intensified following a statement from JKUAT that he was never a student at the university.

“I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mt Kenya University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration from Murang’a University,” Barasa said in an interview with KTN News.

His comments offer his clearest account yet of his undergraduate education amid conflicting records on the Parliament website.

JKUAT says it has no record of Barasa

The dispute was triggered by a September 14 letter from JKUAT Registrar of Academic Affairs Dr Aggrey Wanyama to the Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK).

The university said it had checked its records and found no evidence that Barasa had studied at JKUAT.

It also said it did not hold a graduation ceremony in May 2008, the date appearing on the engineering certificate attributed to the MP.

Based on those checks, JKUAT said the certificate was not genuine.

The university further said the matter had previously been raised with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK).

JKUAT's findings have now put Barasa's different academic records under fresh scrutiny.

Why the parliamentary records matter

The controversy is complicated by the fact that Parliament itself has published two different versions of Barasa's academic history.

An older National Assembly profile states that Barasa studied Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at JKUAT between 2001 and 2005, graduating with Second Class Honours, Upper Division.

The same profile lists postgraduate studies at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney in Australia.

But Parliament's current profile tells a different story.

It lists a Diploma in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Kenya Power & Lighting Training School between 2001 and 2004.

It then lists a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration from Mount Kenya University, completed between 2017 and 2021.

The profile also records a Master of Arts in Public Administration and Management from MKU between 2021 and 2022, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Project Management from the same institution from 2022.

Barasa's latest statement broadly matches the undergraduate qualification in Parliament's current profile.

What remains unresolved is how the earlier JKUAT engineering degree came to appear in an official parliamentary biography and what documentation was used for the different academic records.

Barasa rejects the JKUAT connection

Barasa has rejected the suggestion that he obtained an engineering degree from JKUAT.

He has also dismissed the wider scrutiny of his education as politically motivated, saying his opponents were attempting to damage his reputation.

His response came as COFEK continued to seek verification of his academic credentials.

The organisation had already taken the matter to court in July, challenging aspects of Barasa's admission to a doctoral programme and the verification of his previous qualifications.

Barasa's latest statement is significant because it directly separates him from the JKUAT qualification at the centre of the current dispute.

However, he has not, in the publicly available material reviewed for this report, provided a detailed explanation of why an older parliamentary profile attributed the engineering degree to JKUAT.

His PhD is a separate qualification

The controversy over his undergraduate degree comes only weeks after Barasa graduated with a PhD in Public Administration from Murang'a University of Technology.

The university's own website confirms that Barasa was among those conferred with a doctorate at its 10th graduation ceremony on August 28, 2026.

His doctoral research has focused on public administration and county government.

A 2025 academic paper co-authored by Barasa examined the effect of county government transparency and branding strategies on the satisfaction of small and medium-sized enterprises in Bungoma County. The paper identifies Barasa as a researcher at Murang'a University of Technology.

Defending his doctorate, Barasa said his research was based on a problem he had identified in Bungoma.

“A PhD is not merely the title of an academic programme; it is the scholarly response to an identified research gap,” he said.

He argued that while critics were focusing on his qualifications, his academic work had been directed towards socio-economic issues affecting his home county.

The university's confirmation of his PhD graduation is separate from the unresolved dispute over the older JKUAT engineering qualification.

What the records show now

At the centre of the controversy are three pieces of information that do not currently sit neatly together.

First, JKUAT says Barasa was not its student and did not receive an engineering degree from the institution.

Second, an older Parliament profile says he studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at JKUAT between 2001 and 2005.

Third, Parliament's current profile lists his undergraduate degree as a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration from Mount Kenya University, completed between 2017 and 2021.

Barasa is now publicly identifying the MKU degree as his undergraduate qualification.

The remaining questions concern the origin of the older JKUAT record, the engineering certificate disputed by the university, and how his qualifications were previously recorded by professional and public institutions.

JKUAT says its findings have been communicated to EACC and EBK. Those institutions have yet to publicly provide a detailed account, in the sources reviewed for this report, of how they handled the matter.

For Barasa, the controversy comes at a politically important moment. He is a sitting MP, a recent PhD graduate and a prominent figure in Bungoma politics.

For now, the clearest established position is that Barasa says his bachelor's degree is from Mount Kenya University, while JKUAT says it has no record of him as a student and disputes the authenticity of an engineering certificate attributed to him.

How the conflicting records came to exist remains the central unanswered question.

About the Author

Maureen Onyango is a journalist passionate about storytelling, life coaching and spiritual lessons. She studied at the Kenya Institute of Management and enjoys telling stories that inform, inspire and empower communities.