Of students who fake their graduation ceremonies

December is when most local university students graduate. Graduation ceremonies are a big deal around here. Universities buy acres of space in the media to advertise graduation ceremonies, and live broadcasts of such celebrations have increasingly become commonplace, too.

In the village, such a ceremony excites people and they plan for it well in advance. In some cases, they don’t need to be invited; going for a graduation ceremony to them is pretty much like a ritual. One of them only needs to be invited or the village to get wind of the fact that one of their own son or daughter is graduating. They hire buses and matatus, which they adorn with twigs, flowers and banners and travel hundreds of kilometers to celebrate one of their own. 

In Kenya, it takes one roughly 16 year to go through the educational system before graduating. However, in between is a story of hardship, struggle and endurance to get to university. Generally, it’s not easy to smoothly go through university and graduate in time.

Considering graduation is the only way to prove that one is done with their studies, parents and guardians put a lot of premium on it. Little wonder then, that, some parents have reportedly fallen into depression or got ulcers following their sons or daughters failure to graduate.

Could the fear to disappoint parents be the reason behind students stage-managing their graduations? A spot check around universities by this writer during December revealed that there was a disproportionately large number of students in gowns compared to that of those listed in the graduation booklet.

Franklin enrolled for a degree but at the end of his time in campus, he was not done with his course work. He couldn’t graduate because he had not finished the requisite number of units. He had many missing units and needed an extra two or three years for him to graduate.

“My Political Science lecturer was giving me a hell of time. And I was not alone; we were so many of us who had not graduated because of him. So we never even bothered. He was very strict and high handed so we never used to attend his class,” Franklin says.

 After six years of study, his father got interested with his academic work and wanted to know whether Franklin graduated and why he never invited him at the ceremony. Franklin confessed to his father that he had never graduated but was hoping to graduate in the next celebration, which was to happen in a few weeks’ time.

His father, a no-nonsense retired military man, reacted with fury.

Franklin decided to calm him down by claiming that he didn’t have money for the gown and to settle an outstanding fee balance.

“I told him I never had the cash to clear and he gave me the money for the gown and the remaining school fee. He told me to do everything in my power to graduate,” say Franklin.

When he went to clear with his college, the lecture who had tormented him was still in charge for the only unit he was missing. Considering he had refused to repeat all the mandatory 45 hours of class, he was not going to be allowed to graduate.

“I figured that my father was only interested in the graduation. Seeing me in a gown and posing for photos would have made him happy,” says Franklin.

Franklin tried to procure a gown fraudulently but it proved difficult. Luckily, he met a student who had taken the gown but was not interested in graduating. He bought the gown from him at an inflated cost of Sh5000 as well as the invitation cards that he happily gave his parents who showed up for the event.

To Franklin’s luck, the graduation ceremony was a farce. The day was rainy and everything was shambolic. Other than his relatives’ inability to follow the proceedings, the graduation booklet was full of errors.

“The graduation booklet which listed all who had graduated was full of errors that were publicly acknowledged by the master of ceremonies. He even informed those in attendance that it will be updated,” says Franklin.

For Lydia Omollo, she staged managed her graduation in order to meet the expectations of her aging and struggling parents. While in campus, in order to make ends meet, she had taken up a job that saw her miss a whole semester.

“When I tried to explain to them, they were disappointed and thought my reasons for missing the classes were not convincing. So rather than disappoint them, I had to fake the graduation,” says the 26 year old. For the record she says she has since cleared from her university.  

Lydia bribed the university officials for her gown. She paid double the amount. She invited her parents along with her relatives. Luckily, none of her relatives knew there is a booklet in which graduates are listed.

Better still, she had arranged a party and a photo session with her colleagues and the whole ceremony was a make-belief that succeeded.

“Nobody ever knew that I faked it. They believed but I went back and finalised on the missing semester and I can say I just graduated in advance,” quips Lydia, amid a smile.

 Michael Njoroge had studied for more than eight years. An alcoholic and drug addict, his parents had long given up on him. He was occasionally caught on camera, engaging policemen in student’s riots in Nairobi making his relatives to wonder why he was participating in student’s riots, when they expected him to be at least working or job hunting.  

Consequently, his relatives began pestering him to know whether he ever graduated.

To have peace of mind, he bought a gown and invited his relatives to a graduation ceremony in his college in which he pretended to be one of the graduants.

Martin Keino’s case was slightly different. He had rubbed many lecturers in his college the wrong way. And during his clearance, they gave him a hard time.

“In some departments they were so incensed by my political activities, claiming that they were not clearing me because my scathing attacks on them. Some lecturers had unfairly given me bad grades because of personal disagreements,” he says.

To him, he was being victimized for being vocal against certain departments in the university. 

“For the units I missed, I did so on purpose because most of the time I was serving students, as a leader. Other student leaders normally have their marks waived and we have evidence, so why was I an exception,” wonders Martin. Even so, his parents who were opposed to his student activism would be disappointed and he never wanted to give them the chance of ‘we told you so” moment.

“I had to collude with some of the administrators and get a gown just to be in the graduation square. I even had many student enemies who would love to see me not graduating, so I had to disappoint them by showing up,” he says.

In some cases, parents and relatives attend graduation ceremonies and the student expected to graduate fails to show up.

A few years ago, parents arrived in a matatu from a village in Kisii for a graduation ceremony at the University of Nairobi. Unfortunately, the graduand never turned up. Upon investigation, they discovered the student had not been attending classes and had failed miserably. 

One of the most common reasons that student who fake graduations give is fear of disappointing parents.

This is always because of overstaying in campus, among many other reasons.

It is better for them to stage and satisfy their expectations and deal with it later than tell them after waiting for all those years that they are not graduating.

 According to a dean of students from one local university, who doesn’t want to be named, Many students who don’t graduate are mainly affected by the long and bureaucratic clearance procedures. Some are always pursuing their own activities once they get admitted to university and when it’s time to graduate, they realise they are not done with their course work.

“Some student get involved in drugs, alcoholism and others even get involved in employment or business which eat up much of their time. When the rest are ready for graduation such students are always left behind.

But to please parents and avoid doubts, they fake graduations,” he says. He winds up by advising that students should be encouraged to strike a balance between academia and extra curriculum activities.

Parent or a guardian who have been wondering why their students never get employed or tarmac forever are advised to make appoint of looking at their ‘papers’. They might be shocked to discover that such ‘graduates’ have no papers. And if they have, it is very likely that they are fake.