Graduation at stake as students miss out of graduation list

Anxiety has gripped Maseno University after it emerged that names of more than 300 students were omitted from the list of graduands.

Affected students yesterday blamed the university management. The graduation is set for this Friday.

Some of the students were yesterday seeking intervention of a lawyer in an effort to stop the exercise until their names are included in the list.

“I have everything required to graduate, but my name is missing. It is sad that our dean is saying he has no powers to change the situation,” said a student from the varsity's School of Education.

According to the students, the university released the list last Friday, a week before the graduation date, as opposed to previous cases where such lists came out at least a month to the D-Day.

Students were then given two days to confirm their status and raise any issues with respective deans.

“The list comes out on Friday, and not everybody is within Maseno, so we make travel arrangements from across the country and get here by Sunday, only to be told that we are late,” said a student.

Sources said it was difficult to include the students’ names even if they were cleared because the Senate had no time to meet again for the event.

“I did not attend the last Senate meeting, hence I do not have much to draw from their resolution. But we are engaging the various deans of the affected schools to ensure the matter is handled amicably,” said Fred Makajos, the students' president.

University's Public Relations officer Owen Mc’Onyango admitted that a number of students had raised issues with the graduation list, but defended the university against accusations of omitting names of deserving students.