Fazul Mohamed quits as CEO of NGOs Board

The NGO Coordination Board Executive Director Fazul Mahamed

NAIROBI, KENYA: Fazul Mohamed who has resigned as the Executive Director of Kenya’s Non-Governmental Organizations Board is not new to controversy.

Days towards last year’s general elections, he rubbed shoulders wrong way with several NGOs notableamong them   being the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) when he accused the organization of not paying taxes and keeping illegal documents.

Makau Mutua in his Sunday Standard column questioned Fazul’s memo linking KHRC to the allegations. He read mischief in the notice linking the move to politics. He also questioned Fazul’s academic credentials as head of the Board.

Makau noted in his column that the Ombudsman established that Mr Mohamed didn’t have the requisite academic qualifications because he didn’t finish college.

“Egerton University, where he claims to be an alumnus, apparently kicked him out on academic grounds. But to show you his cojones, Mr Mohamed got a court order to quash his firing by Devolution CS Mwangi Kiunjuri. Shortly thereafter, Mr Mohamed’s patron protected him from Mr Kiunjuri by moving the NGO Board to Internal Security. He’s obviously more powerful than Mr Kiunjuri,” wrote Prof Makau.

On his academic qualifications, a local daily newspaper reported in May that in mid-2015, Prof SFO Owido, Egerton University Registrar of Academic Affairs, said 'Mahamed Yusuf', as Fazul was known in college, was discontinued by the Senate on August 26, 2010 while he was a third year student.

In a letter to the National Council of NGOs dated September 10, Prof Owido said Mahamed was admitted as a regular student in 2007 to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree.

He changed the course through an inter-faculty transfer on September 27, 2007, before he was discontinued for failing to score  50 per cent or more of all the credit factors taken in the ordinary exams of one academic year.

But Mahamed's CV shows he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 2009.

When the paper contacted Fazul, he dismissed the claims as malice saying people who were not happy with his style of managing the Board were out to taint his image.

In a resignation letter addressed to Amos Ntimama, Chairman, Board of Directors NGOs Coordination Board, Fazul regreted submitting the notice of his resignation as CEO effective April 31 though the month of April normally ends on 30th. “During the past three years, my tenure at the Board has been nothing short of pure excitement and joy.”

“I wish to thank the Board of Directors for the invaluable opportunities extended and I commit to effecting an expedient and smooth transition,” he wrote in the resignation letter.