To restore education system let academic fraudsters fall

Until last week, I was a lone voice in the wilderness on the monstrous question of academic theft and fraud. But a thunderbolt struck the guardians of academic integrity last Thursday when the University of Nairobi (UoN) and the Commission for University Education (CUE) defrocked Meru Senator Mithika Linturi and stripped him of his law degree.

A joint UoN/CUE investigation concluded that Linturi used fake academic credentials to obtain entry in law school. There’s at least one academic cheat behind a desk in every office in Kenya. We have an epidemic of academic fraud. The over-inflation of “village universities” in every town and hamlet has destroyed Kenya’s education system, once upon a time the envy of the region.